Mergers and Acquisitions

What would you do if you had a kerjillion dollars? Would you work to promote peace in the world? To make sure that every child was fed? To fund research to eliminate HIV/AIDS? To create affordable housing for those living in poverty?
Would you work to create a really cool bunch of computer animated movies for the whole family? Would you work tirelessly to "retake the American roadway?" Those are the career goals of Steve Jobs and William Clay Ford Jr., respectively.
Jobs became Disney's biggest shareholder all at once when the House of Mouse bought Pixar for $7.4 billion dollars (go ahead and write that out in standard notation, it makes my fourth graders swoon). We can now look forward to watching "Mary Poppins" on our new video Ipods. All media marches toward the brink of a cliff where all media is controlled by Mickey Mouse.
William Ford announced recently it would close as many as 14 factories and cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next six years. This is how his smiling face came to grace the cover of this week's Time magazine. His company lost $1.2 billion dollars in North America this year. The good news he has to share is that his company is developing the Ford Escape Hybrid E85, a research vehicle marrying hybrid electric power and ethanol capability. This may be part of the reason why his company was still able to scrape together $4.4 billion dollars in profit worldwide. William Ford is all about the future.
How many more minutes until Disney makes a takeover bid to buy Ford? Soon we could all drive hybrid Mustangs home to watch the premiere of "Toy Story V" on your integrated iMac entertainment system. Not ready to accept my vision of the future? Check this out: "DEVO, one of the ’80s most innovative and iconic bands, has partnered with Disney Sound to bring their hits to a new generation with 'DEVO 2.0,' a combination CD/DVD package set for release on March 14th." DEVO 2.0 is just a harbinger of things to come. Soon all will be Disney.