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Now That's A Venture Return
How does 740 times your money in 20 years sound?
Sounds fantastic to me.
That's what Steve Jobs just did.
20 years ago, he bought Pixar for $10mm.
And he just sold it to Disney for $7.4bn.
Now he's surely taken some dilution along the way and he may have ponied up more money along the way too. That's what happens with venture investments.
So maybe he made 300 to 400 times his money. Who cares?
Say what you will about Steve Jobs, and I have said plenty about the consumer unfriendly stuff that Apple is doing with the iPod and online music lately, but he is one of the great technology businessmen of our time, maybe the greatest.
And this deal should go down in history as one of the great venture investments.
January 24, 2006 Venture Capital and Technology | Comments (5) | TrackBack (3)
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» Early Reaction To Disney-Pixar from PaidContent.org
: Some early reaction to the Disney-Pixar deal...as always, we'll focus on the digital media and deal aspects: -- Fred Wilson: How does 740 times your money in 20 years sound? -- Ken Auletta: He compared the deal to Time... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 24, 2006 6:05:49 PM
» Steve Jobs gets a new job at Disney from mathewingram.com/work
When it comes to Steve Jobs, most investors and even non-market watchers probably think of a single word: Apple. After all, Apple is the company that Mr. Jobs co-founded in the 1970s, when he was just a cocky twenty-something (as opposed to a cocky fi... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 24, 2006 10:17:29 PM
» The God of venture capital in Silicon Valley -- or is it God(s!)? from SiliconBeat
Doerr in IndiaOne India technology-venture capital blog we failed to mention yesterday is VCcircle.com. It has a post that will please Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr, the evangelist. They're calling him "God" of the venture capital industry in Silicon Val... [Read More]
Tracked on Feb 9, 2006 12:21:49 PM
Comments
Can we be sure Steve Jobs is entitled to all the credit? Check out this Ipod prototype!
http://www.privateequitychina.com/2006/01/ipod_prototype.html
Posted by: Andrew Batchelor | Jan 24, 2006 9:19:42 PM
You gotta be kiddin'.
Jobs is no VC. He invested in Pixar when it wasn't the most popular idea, he ran the company and waited 20 years for his return. VCs don't do that.
Don't flatter yourself by dubious association.
Posted by: Anona | Jan 24, 2006 11:24:42 PM
Getting your money back 300-fold over 20 years translates into an average 33% annual return. Not to be scoffed at.
Posted by: Lars | Jan 25, 2006 7:57:47 AM
Jobs is a visionary and a tough SOB and we all bow down, as we should.
But no way would any VC have made money on Pixar -- the company basically was a huge money pit without a mission for five, count 'em five, years even after Jobs bought the clunker in 1986 from George Lucas (who had finally got sick of all the losses.)
And five years later, all that happened was Pixar got a distribution deal with Disney.
That is, Pixar still had one little task left: make a hit movie.
The magic is, almost singlehandedly executed by John Lassiter, the true Pixar genius, Pixar then created a hit movie. Then another. Then another. Then another.
So lets see -- VC material? A decade or more of massive losses and no traction or business plan. Followed, when a business plan finally emerged, by the most hit driven of hit driven business models, with zero competitive advantage created by technology (anybody could have and can assemble the same exact technology as Pixar -- its the creative staff and projects that drive success.) Somehow I doubt too many VC firms would be comfortable?
God bless you, Steve Jobs. The ultimate entrepreneur!
Posted by: steve | Jan 25, 2006 12:34:06 PM
Jobs owns 30,000,001 million shares personally, so he's looking at a 370x return on his initial investment. I've no idea how much he's put into the firm over time to maintain his 50.1% ownership stake, but it would be very difficult for anyone with an objective perspective to suggest Jobs didn't come out of this smelling like roses.
Posted by: Jason Wood | Jan 25, 2006 3:53:56 PM
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