Iger had just come back from opening the new Disneyland in Hong Kong, with Eisner at his side in his last big act as CEO.
艾格与艾斯纳一起参加了香港迪士尼乐园的开幕式,这是艾斯纳在任职CEO期间的最后一次大动作。
The ceremonies included the usual Disney parade down Main Street.
庆祝活动包括常规的迪士尼队伍在主街上的游行。
Iger realized that the only characters in the parade that had been created in the past decade were Pixar's.
艾格发现,在游行队伍中,近十年出现的最新的卡通人物都是由皮克斯打造出来的。
"A lightbulb went off," he recalled. "I'm standing next to Michael, but I kept it completely to myself,
他回忆道:“我当时有一种恍然大悟的感觉。我站在迈克尔旁边,但是我什么都没有说,
because it was such an indictment of his stewardship of animation during that period.
因为这就像一场对他这些年在动画业务管理上的控诉。
After ten years of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, there were then ten years of nothing."
继《狮子王》《美女与野兽》和《阿拉丁》之后的十年完全是一片空白。”
Iger went back to Burbank and had some financial analysis done.
艾格回到伯班克之后作了一些财务分析。
He discovered that they had actually lost money on animation in the past decade and had produced little that helped ancillary products.
他发现在过去十年中,迪士尼在动画方面其实是亏损的,而且对附属产品的营销也没有什么推动作用。
At his first meeting as the new CEO, he presented the analysis to the board,
在接任CEO之后的第一次会议中,他向董事会报告了财务分析的结果,
whose members expressed some anger that they had never been told this.
董事会成员也表现出愤怒,因为他们从来没有被告知球这些。
"As animation goes, so goes our company," he told the board.
艾格告诉蓳事会:“随着动画片业务的开展,我们的公司却每况愈下。
"A hit animated film is a big wave, and the ripples go down to every part of our business
一部热卖的动画片对拉动全公司的业务有显著的效果,而我们经营的每一个分支却都处于衰落趋势
from characters in a parade, to music, to parks, to video games, TV, Internet, consumer products.
包括出现在游行中的卡通角色、音乐、主题公园、电子游戏、电视节目、互联网、消费产品。
If I don't have wave makers, the company is not going to succeed."
如果我们不能制造出有拉动效应的动画片,公司是不会成功的。”
He presented them with some choices. They could stick with the current animation management, which he didn't think would work.
之后,他又给董事会提供了一些可供选择的方案。一、沿用现在的动画片管理模式,但他认为这样做不会有成效。
They could get rid of management and find someone else, but he said he didn't know who that would be. Or they could buy Pixar.
二、重组董事会,但是他不知道该找谁来加入。最后一个方案就是收购皮克斯。
"The problem is, I don't know if it's for sale, and if it is, it's going to be a huge amount of money," he said.
他说,“问题是我不知道皮克斯愿不愿意出售,如果他们愿意,那会是很大一笔钱。”
The board authorized him to explore a deal.
董事会准许他去考察一下这笔交易的可能性。