Company Profile


Pixar


Location:
1200 Park Avenue
Emeryville, CA 94608
 Phone: (510) 752-3000
Fax: (510) 752-3151
map 

Home page:
http://www.pixar.com/



Profile:
"Pixar Animation Studios (Nasdaq: PIXR) combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation." (Corporate Overview) " Pixar is a digital animation studio with the creative, technical and production capabilities to create a new generation of animated feature films and related products. The Company's objective is to create, develop and produce computer animated feature films with a three dimensional appearance." Since its inception, the Company has created and produced four full length animated feature films, Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., and many short films which were marketed and distributed by The Walt Disney Company. (Yahoo Business Summary) In addition to animated feature films, Pixar Animation Studios has also released home videos of all four movies as well as releasing Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2 to the domestic network market, the international broadcast market, and the premium television market.  A significant source of revenue is licensing characters to consumer products such as toys and interactive games.

Aside from the companies own projects, Pixar Animation Studios have developed and now licenses three core proprietary technologies: "Marionette, an animation software system for articulation, animating and lighting, Ringmaster, a production management software system for scheduling, coordinating and tracking of a computer animation project and RenderMan, a rendering software system for high quality photo realistic image synthesis that the Company uses internally and licenses to third parties." "Pixar has been selling its RenderMan software since the late 1980's. RenderMan has helped visual effects studios create visual effects such as creatures appearing in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, certain dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the metal cyborg in Terminator 2 and the horde of horsemen charging over the hill in Mulan. In addition, RenderMan has been used to create other movies such as Titanic, The Matrix, Perfect Storm, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor, Moulin Rouge, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone." (Yahoo Expanded Business Description) Each of these technological systems is important to the production of Pixar's animation as well as to others.






Competitors:
TTop Competitors:
Disney Studios  (Disney Homepage)
 Dreamworks SKG  (Dreamworks Homepage)
 Lucasfilm (Lucasfilm Homepage)
(Hoover's Online)

and

Family Oriented Film Studios such as:
Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group Inc., Paramount Pictures,  Universal Studios, Inc. and MGM/UA

Computer Graphics Special Effects Firms such as:
LM, Rhythm & Hues/VIFX, Tippett Studios, Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks
 (Yahoo Expanded Business Description)



Financial Data:

Annual Income: $70,223,000
Number of Employees: 648
Ticker Symbol: PIXR
Chart
Current Stock Price
Current Market Cap
10-K report



History:

1984: John Lasseter lleaves Disney and joins George Lucas's special-effects computer group that will one day become Pixar. Lasseter makes first short film, Andre and Wally B.
1986: Steve Jobs buys the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm for 10 million dollars. Ed Catmull is cofounder. 44 people are employed. Luxo Jr. is premiered.
1987: Luxo Jr. is Pixar's first short film to win an award. It wins an Academy Award and Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
1989: Pixar makes its first commercial for Tropicanna, "Wake Up."
1990: Pixar moves to a one story office building in Point Richmond, California, creates five new commercials.
1991: Pixar teams up with Walt Disney to develop, produce, and distribute up to three full length animated films. Pixar makes 15 commericals.
1992: Pixar makes 9 commercials, and it's Computer Assisted Production System (CAPS) wins the Scientific  and Engineering Award.
1993: Pixar makes an IBM logo
1994: Pixar makes a Paramount logo
1995: Pixar goes public. It offers 6.9 million shares for 22 dollars each. Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature film hits theatres Thanksgiving weekend. It pulls in 192 million domestically and 358 million worldwide,  making it the highest grossing film of the year.
1996: John Lasseter is given the Special Achievement Award at the Oscars, Toy Story gets two Golden Globe nominations and  is nomiated for three Academy Awards. This is the last year that Pixar creates specially comissioned commercials.
1997: Pixar expands to a second building in Point Richmond, the number of employees reaching 375. In the short film, Geri's Game, new advances are made in animating skin and cloth.
1998: A Bug's Life hit theatres Thanksgiving  weekend, breaking all previous records. One week after international release, it captures the number one spot in six internation markets. Geri's Game wins an Academy Award.
1999: Toy Story 2 is released and breaks records in the US, UK, and Japan. It is also the first film in history to be entirely created, mastered, and exhibited digitally. A Bug's Life recieves a Grammy and an Academy Award nomination.
2000: Pixar moves to a new building in Emeryville, California. Toy Story 2 recieves a Golden Globe and two Grammys.
2001: Monsters Inc. is released, has the largest three day opening opening in the history of Walt Disney and Pixar as well as for an animated film. It is the sixth largest opening in industry history. Ed Catmull is named Pixar's president, John Lasseter signs a ten year contract providing his services exclusively to Pixar. Number of employees reaches over 600.

Pixar Home Page

Officers:
     Steve Jobs - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Age: 47
Salary: $1

Steven P. Jobs is one of the Company's co-founders and currently serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Jobs is also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar Animation Studios. In addition, Mr. Jobs co-founded NeXT Software, Inc. (NeXT) and served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NeXT from 1985 until 1997 when NeXT was acquired by the Company.

Steven P Jobs has been listed in Forbes' 400 Richest Americans, America's Most Powerful People and World's Richest People. Steven P Jobs "(Forbes Financial)

  Ed Catmull - Director and President
Age: 57
Salary: $498,088 

"University of Utah Bachelor of Science in Physics
University of Utah Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

Dr. Catmull is a co-founder of Pixar and in January 2001 was promoted to President. He has served as a member of the executive team and as Chief Technical Officer of Pixar since the incorporation of the company. In 1979, Dr. Catmull brought his high-technology expertise to the film industry as vice president of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. During that time, Dr. Catmull managed four development efforts in the areas of computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio. He was also a key developer of RenderMan, the program that creates realistic digital effects for computer graphics and animation. Dr. Catmull has been honored with three Scientific and Technical Engineering Awards from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work, including an Oscar "for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar's RenderMan." He also won the Coons Award, which is the highest achievement in computer graphics, for his lifetime contributions. Dr. Catmull is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Science and Technical Awards Committee. Dr. Catmull earned his B.S. degrees in computer science and physics and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah. " (Forbes Finance)


 Ann Mather - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Secretary

Age: 41 years old
Salary: $416,074

"Cambridge University

Ms. Mather has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since September 1999. Ms. Mather has served as Secretary of Pixar since October 1999. Prior to joining Pixar, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Village Roadshow Pictures. From 1992 to 1999, Ms. Mather held various executive positions at The Walt Disney Company including Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration of its Buena Vista International Theatrical Division (the division that markets and distributes all of Disney's theatrical films outside of the U.S. and Canada). From 1991 to 1992, she was the European Controller for Alico, a division of AIG, Inc. From 1989 to 1991, she was Director of Finance for Polo Ralph Lauren Europe and from 1984 to 1988, Ms. Mather was at Paramount Pictures Corporation where she held various executive positions in London, Amsterdam and New York. Ms. Mather is a graduate of Cambridge University in England and is a chartered public accountant." (Forbes Financial)



  John Lasseter - Executive Vice President, Creative Development at
Age: 45
Salary: $2,122,694  

"California Institute of the Arts Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts

Mr. Lasseter is a two-time Academy Award-winning director and animator. In addition to serving as head of all of Pixar Animation Studios' films and projects as Executive Vice President of Creative, he directed Toy Story, (the first feature-length computer animated film) for which he won a special Achievement Academy Award, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. He most recently served as executive producer of Monsters, Inc., and in 2001, he was given an honorary doctorate degree from the American Film Institute. Mr. Lasseter is currently in development on his fourth feature film. Mr. Lasseter directed the first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story, for which he received a Special Achievement Oscar and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, the first animated film ever to receive an Oscar nomination for screenplay. Mr. Lasseter has written and directed a number of short films and television commercials while at Pixar: Luxo Jr. (1986 Academy Award nominee), Red's Dream (1987), Tin Toy (1988 Academy Award Winner) and Knickknack (1989), which was produced as a 3D stereoscopic film. Tin Toy was the first computer animated film to win an Oscar, when it won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Mr. Lasseter also designed and animated the Stained Glass Knight character in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production, Young Sherlock Holmes." (Forbes Financial)




Plans:

Pixar is planning to release Finding Nemo, it's fifth full length feature film, May 30, 2003. It has been reported that the test screening of a work-in-progress version of the movie was "very disappointing." (Finding Nemo 2003) Pixar is also outgrowing it's office building now and has plans to build three new buildings and a two story parking garage. "Details have not been determined, but the company plans to seek entitlements for up to 160,000-square-feet for each of the three new buildings. Its existing building, at 1200 Park Ave., is approximately 215,000-square-feet." (Pixar pushes for new space to grow 12.27.02)  Pixar also plans on releasing two more films: The Incredibles (holiday 2004) and Cars (holiday 2005).