In the past two decades, the world of computer animation has witnessed rapid developments.

In particular, increasing technological possibilities have radically changed the style and complexity of animated flms. Furthermore, the markets for these offerings keep changing too, providing great opportunities for new entrants and signifcant potential threats to existing industry players—such as Walt Disney, the king of the animated movie industry.

Familiar characters such as Oswald the Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy helped Walt Disney build a business empire held up by four pillars: (1) production and distribution of animated and live-action motion pictures, (2) parks and resorts, (3) consumer products (i.e. merchandising) and (4) media networks, including ABC and ESPN.

Despite the expansion of the Disney enterprise, its core remained the production of animated flms. The competence underlying this core contributor also was well set: handdrawn animated fgures. In the face of a technical revolution, however, Disney found it was lacking competences to generate the sophisticated look and creative approaches that consumers were demanding. To overcome these challenges, it sought alliance partners to incorporate new animation technologies into its flm production; Pixar appeared to be an excellent alliance candidate.

Questions 1 What asymmetries appear in the Disney–Pixar alliance? How do they change? To what extent do they afect the alliance’s power relationship?
2 In which ways did the dynamic power relationship between Disney and Pixar, and its management, infuence the alliance development?
3 Disney paid a high price to acquire Pixar. Could it have done something diferently?