Why Did Disney's Board Approve Buying Pixar?

The Disney board forgot to say no because buying Pixar was unthinkable. Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal say Bob Iger, before calling Steve Jobs, asked the board for authorization to open a conversation about buying Pixar. The surprise was so complete that the board told him to call. Everyone thought there was no chance Steve Jobs would say yes.

Bob Iger's conviction was that Pixar needed to come inside Disney and take over Disney Animation, not merely be owned by Disney. The offer was any price after a predecessor had burned the bridge: Pixar would take over the most prestigious animation studio in the world and fix it, because Disney was waving the white flag. In their view, Steve Jobs was so surprised that the door opened, and Bob Iger fixed the Steve Jobs relationship almost at once.

Disney would buy Pixar and keep the studio fully intact and independent in the Bay Area, with its own email addresses, its own culture, and nothing would change. Lasseter and Catmull would still run Pixar, commute to L.A. two days a week, and run Disney Animation. They could also call Disney Animation unrescuable, or say that splitting their time would kill both studios, and ask to shut Disney Animation down so Pixar became Disney's one studio. Lasseter and Catmull said they could not possibly do that. Disney Animation was too important to where they all came from.