Disney buys out Pixar for US$7.4bn
Burnbank, USA: Walt Disney Co has agreed to buy Steve Jobs's Pixar computer-animation studio for US$7.4bn in stock. Disney, the second-largest U.S. media company, will pay about US$59.78 a share for Pixar.

Pixar president Ed Catmull will take over as president of the animation studios, reporting to Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger and Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook.

Lasseter, a former Disney animator, returns as chief creative officer of animation studios and will lead the team that designs theme park attractions. He will report to Iger.

Disney will issue 2.3 of its own share for each Pixar share, the companies said. Pixar will add to Disney earnings in fiscal 2008, Disney chief financial officer Tom Staggs said. The Pixar deal, which was approved by both companies' boards, repairs a relationship that crumbled under former Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner, who feuded publicly with Jobs before stepping down in October.

Jobs holds 50.6 percent of Pixar's shares. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. advised Disney's board on the transaction, which requires regulatory approval. Pixar's board was advised by Credit Suisse, the companies said.

Selling to Disney gives Jobs, 50, a way to unlock his investment in Pixar, which he formed in 1986 with the purchase of the computer-graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. for US$10mn.

Disney's movie business, whose animation unit has stumbled with flops such as ``Treasure Planet,'' posted a US$313mn loss in the quarter ended in September. The company relied on its distribution agreement with Pixar for a series of hits that produced US$3.2bn at the box office, starting with ``Toy Story'' and most recently, ``The Incredibles.''

The companies split costs and revenue under the agreement after Pixar paid Disney a distribution fee. The last film in the companies' deal was ``Cars,'' to be released in June.
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Arcelor trumps ThyssenKrupp with US$5.5bn bid for Dofasco
Hamilton, Canada: Dofasco Inc is set to become a part of the world's second biggest steelmaker Arcelor SA, after embracing a US$5.5bn takeover offer from the European steel giant.

Arcelor became the highest bidder for Hamilton-based Dofasco when German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp AG dropped out of a fierce bidding war late Monday.

Early Tuesday, Dofasco announced that it had signed an agreement with Arcelor, allowing the company to revise its $71 per share offer. Dofasco's board of directors "unanimously supports the Arcelor offer on the basis that it provides excellent value to Dofasco shareholders and reflects the strategic value of Dofasco to Arcelor as a platform for North American growth," Brian MacNeill, chairman of Dofasco's board of directors, said in a statement.

Arcelor said the acquisition will boost its worldwide market share about three percentage points to between 17 and 18 per cent. The Luxembourg-based firm's annual production will rise by about 10 per cent, to 55 million tons.

The firm will use Dofasco as a ready-to-go North American branch of its steelmaking business.

Dofasco has been churning out steel on the shores of Hamilton since 1912, when it was founded as the Dominion Steel Casting Co. to make castings for Canadian railways. Dofasco has developed a high reputation in North America's steel industry, largely maintaining its profitability while dozens of its competitors filed for bankruptcy protection.
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DaimlerChrysler to eliminate 6,000 white-collar jobs
Frankfurt: DaimlerChrysler has announced that it would eliminate 6,000 administrative jobs as it moves its cost-cutting measures beyond the automotive factory floor to include its global white-collar work force.

Daimler's chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, said the cuts, amounting to 20 per cent of the company's 30,000 management and administrative jobs, would bring annual savings of about US$1.8bn once the effort is completed by the end of 2008.

As chief of the Chrysler division, Zetsche eliminated 26,000 jobs, turning it around in a manner that its American competitors, Ford Motor and General Motors, are now trying to emilate. In September, Zetsche pushed through 8,500 job cuts at the Mercedes car group, which he directs. About 57 percent of the jobs being eliminated are in Germany, with 25 percent in the United States and Canada, and the rest spread throughout the world, Zetsche said.
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