Marvel vs. Pixar: Which Acquisition Made Disney Shareholders Richer?

Business publication The Motley Fool offers an interesting assessment of which Disney acquisition—Pixar or Marvel—generates more revenue for the studio. According to their calculations, the answer is obvious: Pixar.

Outside of the Pixar/Marvel debate, one figure in their piece stands out above all others:

From the close of the Pixar acquisition on May 9, 2006, to today, Disney has added roughly $90 billion in market cap — from just over $62 billion to more than $155 billion as of this writing. Pixar is probably responsible for over half those gains.

Why is this number so amazing? Because when Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion, a lot of financial pundits suggested that Disney had overpaid for the computer animation company. But according to the Motley Fool, Disney’s investment in Pixar has already generated somewhere in the range of $45 billion for shareholders, a six-fold increase in just eight years.