Disney board set to meet about Pixar merger

Walt Disney's board of directors is expected to meet by Monday to consider buying Pixar Animation Studios in a deal that could revive Disney as the world's dominant animation studio and give computer pioneer Steve Jobs a new platform of power.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Disney proposed to buy Pixar in a stock transaction worth more than $6.7 billion, making Pixar CEO Jobs its largest individual shareholder and possibly giving the man who also co-founded Apple Computer a seat on Disney's board.

Disney, for decades the pre-eminent maker of such hand-drawn animated films as "Cinderella" and "Lion King," has struggled in recent years to maintain its position in an industry that has embraced computer-generated (CG) films.

The two companies were in the midst of renegotiating their distribution agreement, which expires in June with the release of Pixar's "Cars," when rumors of the purchase surfaced.

Media industry watchers have speculated that the merger talk was driven by Disney's lack of confidence in its upcoming slate of animated films.

Disney's first CG release, "Chicken Little," released Nov. 4, has performed respectably, with worldwide box office sales of $279 million, but less than Pixar's lowest-grossing film, "A Bug's Life," which reaped $363 million worldwide.

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