January 24th, 2006
Hello, Silicon Media Valley
Silicon Valley’s Babe Ruth does it again. Steve Jobs will be on the board of media giant Disney following the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in a stock deal valued at $6.3bn.
This is a very significant moment in Silicon Valley history because it shows how Silicon Valley is changing into a Silicon Media Valley, or more accurately, a technology-enabled media valley. And it is another strong connection between the large high tech/media centers that form a West Coast corridor running ffrom Vancouver, to Seattle, to Portland, to the San Francisco Bay Area, and down to Santa Monica and San Diego.
The acquisition strengthens the business and cultural links between Santa Clara and Santa Monica. We had Terry Semel, co-chief of media giant Warner Brothers, come up from So. Cal to run Yahoo in May 2001. Now we have Steve Jobs on the board of Disney.
It’s clear that Steve Jobs has been bought-in to reinvigorate Disney. He’s a rock-star CEO, and has a string of successes under his belt. He also has a Machiovelian reputation for being able to thrive within organisations that are divided on strategy issues.
I think it is a good move by Disney because I believe that content will be king, and that the future will reward technology-enabled media companies that own their own content and know how to produce it.
That’s a much better media business model than using servers to spider content from other sites, imho.
From News.com: Pixar goes to Hollywood
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. He also writes at Silicon Valley Watcher. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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