New York Post: Jobs' Mistake Opens The Door For Microsoft

by , 11:30 AM EST, February 24th, 2004

The New York Post thinks Steve Jobs has made a big mistake. By walking away from renewing the vows Pixar had with Disney, The New York Post's Hilary Kramer believes that Jobs may be losing more than he's bargained for. From the the article, ODD JOBS' LOT :

Less than 10 days after Pixar ended talks with Disney about renewing their film distribution deal, Microsoft partnered with Disney in a multi-year deal for digital media initiatives, including licensing Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology for home and portable media devices.

Noted Raul Arrazcaeta, managing director of Lazard Freres, "Pixar could have been the platform to launch an assault on old-fashioned movies and film. Jobs did it on the music side and he could have done it on the video side, too, but he told Disney to get lost, which opened the door for Microsoft."

Read the full article at the New York Post.

The Mac Observer Spin:

It's easy to play armchair CEO and say what someone should or should not have done in a given situation, especially after several events have taken place since the crucial decision in question was made. What's a lot tougher is making those decisions in the first place. We should know, we play armchair CEO all the time.

Even though it appears that Pixar had the upper hand at the time, there are many other considerations to account for, which is why Steve Jobs get paid the big buck. (Jobs only draws $1 from Apple, and no salary from Pixar, but he has lot of stock in both companies.) It's still too early to tell whether Jobs made the right decision when he canned Disney, or even if there was a right or wrong decision. What is fairly certain is that Pixar will grab another lucrative deal, and that there will be plenty of 'should haves' to go around.

ODD JOBS' LOT