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10 – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2006 THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL<br />
COMMERCE<br />
Pixar’s sale to Disney<br />
animates collectors<br />
of stock certificates<br />
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE<br />
AP Business Writer<br />
SAN FRANCISCO -- Pixar<br />
Animation Studios Inc.’s<br />
upcoming sale to Walt Disney<br />
Co. has inspired an audience<br />
of investors more interested in<br />
buying a piece of paper than a<br />
piece of the $7.4 billion deal.<br />
All these people really<br />
want is one of Pixar’s stock<br />
certificates, the commemorative<br />
scrolls given to shareholders<br />
of the computer animation<br />
pioneer behind hit<br />
movies like “Toy Story” and<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Incredibles.”<br />
Once Disney absorbs the<br />
company later this spring,<br />
Pixar will stop issuing the colorful<br />
certificates decorated<br />
with “Toy Story” stars Woody<br />
and Buzz Lightyear -- just one<br />
of the reasons why this particular<br />
piece of paper is so treasured.<br />
“It’s like a piece of art,”<br />
said Brian Giboney, who<br />
recently added Pixar to his<br />
collection of stock certificates<br />
from about 100 different companies.<br />
“And it’s not something<br />
that you are going to be<br />
able to buy down the road.”<br />
Giboney, 35, keeps his<br />
Pixar certificate in a safe<br />
place, just like the rest of his<br />
collection, because he<br />
believes the documents will<br />
become more valuable as<br />
computer databases increasingly<br />
replace paper records of<br />
stock ownership. He prizes his<br />
collection so much that he<br />
asked <strong>The</strong> Associated Press to<br />
withhold his home city to<br />
thwart potential thieves.<br />
Other people like San<br />
Francisco resident Lily Chang<br />
want a Pixar certificate purely<br />
<strong>for</strong> emotional reasons. She<br />
bought five Pixar shares<br />
shortly after the Jan. 24<br />
announcement of the Disney<br />
sale just so she could get a<br />
stock certificate, which she<br />
tucked into one of her old college<br />
textbooks in hopes of getting<br />
the wrinkles out.<br />
“I feel like a dork because<br />
it feels a bit obsessive,” said<br />
Chang, 36, who once dreamed<br />
of working <strong>for</strong> Pixar. “I am<br />
never going to be selling this<br />
(certificate) on eBay though.<br />
You can’t put a price on sentiment.”<br />
With the Disney deal looming,<br />
many people are buying<br />
just one share of Pixar stock<br />
because that’s the least expensive<br />
way to get certificates<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e they become obsolete.<br />
Pixar’s stock price recently<br />
has been hovering around<br />
$65, but getting a certificate<br />
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additional fees at places like<br />
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the service. Throw in the<br />
frame that many people have<br />
been buying to memorialize<br />
the Pixar certificates and the<br />
total cost is closer to $150.<br />
That price hasn’t scared off<br />
buyers at San Francisco-based<br />
OneShare, where orders <strong>for</strong><br />
Pixar stock certificates are<br />
running 35 times higher than<br />
the same time last year.<br />
“It’s been like Christmas all<br />
over again <strong>for</strong> us,” said Byron<br />
Beach, OneShare’s vice president<br />
of marketing.<br />
Pixar sales have tripled at<br />
Frame A Stock, and the Fort<br />
Myers, Fla.-based company<br />
expects demand to accelerate<br />
even more as it steps up its<br />
promotional ef<strong>for</strong>ts during the<br />
next month, said President<br />
Tim Stockton.<br />
Stock certificates used to<br />
be the standard way of denoting<br />
ownership in a publicly<br />
held company, but that has<br />
changed dramatically during<br />
the past decade as the securities<br />
industry has shifted to<br />
electronic record-keeping to<br />
reduce costs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Depository Trust &<br />
Clearing Corp., which settles<br />
most U.S. stock trades, now<br />
has just 3.4 million stock certificates<br />
in its vaults, down<br />
from roughly 30 million in<br />
1990.<br />
Certificates are expected to<br />
become even more rare with<br />
the passage of a new law last<br />
year in Delaware, where more<br />
than half of the nation’s publicly<br />
traded companies are<br />
incorporated because of the<br />
state’s favorable business<br />
rules. Delaware has dropped a<br />
requirement <strong>for</strong>cing all companies<br />
to issue stock certificates,<br />
making the choice<br />
optional.<br />
<strong>The</strong> rise of paperless record<br />
keeping is helping to popularize<br />
scripophily -- the collection<br />
of old stock and bond certificates.<br />
Some of these collectors<br />
are strictly in it <strong>for</strong> the money,<br />
hoping to come across something<br />
as valuable as vintage<br />
Standard Oil Co. stock certificates<br />
issued in the 19th century.<br />
Some of Standard Oil’s<br />
1873 certificates, signed by<br />
John D. Rockefeller, have<br />
fetched anywhere from<br />
$8,500 to $130,000 apiece,<br />
said Bob Kerstein, who runs<br />
Scripophily.com, which has<br />
become a magnet <strong>for</strong> collec-<br />
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Other collectors are just<br />
looking <strong>for</strong> a memento that<br />
sums up a particular era.<br />
That’s one reason why the<br />
stock certificates of Enron<br />
Corp. -- an emblem of corporate<br />
scandal -- were recently<br />
listed on Scripophily <strong>for</strong><br />
prices ranging from $49.95 to<br />
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in late 2001 when the<br />
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It also helps to have a<br />
flashy certificate. That factor<br />
seems to be driving demand<br />
<strong>for</strong> eToys Inc., a relic of the<br />
dot-com boom that went<br />
bankrupt in 2001. Its ornate<br />
certificate, featuring toys<br />
alongside its red-and-blue<br />
logo, demands $125 to $250.<br />
Even be<strong>for</strong>e the Disney<br />
sale, Pixar was among a handful<br />
of companies whose stock<br />
certificates have been a perennial<br />
favorite.<br />
Other high-demand stock<br />
certificates include Harley-<br />
Davidson Inc., Ford Motor<br />
Co., Dreamworks Animation<br />
SKG Inc., Tiffany & Co.,<br />
Coca-Cola Co., Starbucks<br />
Inc., Microsoft Inc. and Apple<br />
Computer Inc.<br />
Except <strong>for</strong> a few brief periods,<br />
Disney’s stock certificate<br />
has been the top seller at<br />
OneShare since <strong>for</strong>mer bond<br />
trader Lance Lee started the<br />
company a decade ago. Since<br />
then, OneShare has sold more<br />
than $20 million in stock, Lee<br />
said.<br />
Disney’s stock certificates<br />
are adorned with drawings of<br />
Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell<br />
and several other pop culture<br />
icons, making the documents<br />
popular gift items <strong>for</strong> parents<br />
and grandparents shopping <strong>for</strong><br />
children’s gifts with an investment<br />
twist. Because Disney is<br />
buying Pixar with its own<br />
stock, Pixar shareholders will<br />
be eligible to receive a Disney<br />
certificate after the deal is<br />
completed.<br />
Pixar supplanted Disney as<br />
OneShare’s most popular certificate<br />
as soon as the sale was<br />
announced, Beach said. It’s<br />
the longest stretch that any<br />
company besides Disney has<br />
topped OneShare’s sales<br />
charts, which didn’t surprise<br />
Lee.<br />
“If you are a Pixar fan,”<br />
Lee said, “there’s something a<br />
lot more substantial about<br />
buying the company’s stock<br />
certificate instead of getting<br />
some figurine of a character in<br />
one of Pixar’s movies.”<br />
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http://www.frameastock.com;<br />
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Mickey Mouse gets ready <strong>for</strong><br />
Disney’s European cruise vacation<br />
By KELLI KENNEDY<br />
<strong>The</strong> Associated Press<br />
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Mickey<br />
Mouse is going on a European vacation in the<br />
summer of 2007.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Disney Cruise Line will sail to Italy,<br />
France and Spain from May to August 2007 as<br />
part of a larger strategy to “chart new waters,”<br />
company officials announced Tuesday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Disney Magic will offer eight alternating<br />
10-night and 11-night Mediterranean cruises,<br />
departing from Barcelona, Spain, and stopping<br />
in eight European cities.<br />
Traveling through Europe can be daunting,<br />
especially with small children, company<br />
President Tom McAlpin said. A Disney cruise<br />
takes the guesswork out of what cities to hit,<br />
where to eat and what shows to see, he said.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> cruise takes care of all of that and people<br />
trust Disney. At the end of the day you<br />
know you’re coming back to the ship and having<br />
five-star dining, great entertainment and<br />
you know your kids are going to have a good<br />
time,” he said.<br />
Disney is considering expanding beyond its<br />
two ships, which have been successful since<br />
they began operating Caribbean voyages in<br />
1998. But “it’s not the right time now,”<br />
McAlpin said.<br />
But the European expansion will have little<br />
impact on the cruise industry overall, an analyst<br />
said. Major players such as Carnival Corp.<br />
and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. already<br />
operate in Europe with cruise lines that cater<br />
specifically to European vacationers.<br />
Even if the unit of <strong>The</strong> Walt Disney Co.<br />
decided to add a few new ships, it would pale<br />
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in comparison to the 16 ships industry leader<br />
Carnival will add in the next four years on top<br />
of its 80 ship fleet, said Craig Parmelee, a credit<br />
analyst <strong>for</strong> Standard & Poor’s.<br />
Disney’s announcement does come at a time<br />
when the industry is flourishing. Despite<br />
media reports focusing on crime and safety<br />
problems on vessels, bookings are up, according<br />
to the Cruise Lines International<br />
Association. Ticket prices are also returning to<br />
highs set be<strong>for</strong>e the recession and Sept. 11 terrorist<br />
attacks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> association projects the number of<br />
cruise travelers to increase by about 500,000<br />
people from last year, to about 11.7 million.<br />
Trips have become more attractive values<br />
because of larger ships, diverse entertainment<br />
options and onboard innovations with luxury<br />
amenities -- supper clubs, bowling alleys,<br />
afternoon tea, movie theaters.<br />
Disney is a relative latecomer to the industry.<br />
It started with the Magic in 1998. It added<br />
the Disney Wonder later that year and now<br />
offers cruises to the Caribbean, the Bahamas<br />
and its own island, Castaway Cay. <strong>The</strong> cruise<br />
line caters to a niche family market -- there’s<br />
no gambling, entertainment is family oriented<br />
and Mickey and Minnie mingle with young<br />
guests throughout the voyage.<br />
Disney guests like visiting new places,<br />
McAlpin said. <strong>The</strong> Magic’s trip last year<br />
through the Mexican Riviera out of Los<br />
Angeles was successful, he said.<br />
Next summer, Disney will also offer two 14night<br />
trans-Atlantic sailings to bookend the<br />
Mediterranean voyages. Rates <strong>for</strong> the 10- and<br />
11-night cruises start at $2,399 per person.<br />
Google introduces finance<br />
section to catch up with rivals<br />
<strong>The</strong> Associated Press<br />
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -<br />
- Online search engine leader<br />
Google Inc. is devoting a section<br />
of its Web site to in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
about the stock market and<br />
corporate America, filling a<br />
gaping product hole as it continues<br />
to battle <strong>for</strong> Internet traffic<br />
with rivals Yahoo Inc., MSN<br />
and America Online.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Mountain View, Calif.based<br />
company plans to unveil<br />
its newest channel Tuesday at<br />
http://finance.google.com.<br />
Many of the Google features,<br />
including stock market quotes<br />
and charts, mirror Yahoo’s<br />
finance section, which has been<br />
available <strong>for</strong> the past decade.<br />
Yahoo operates the Web’s<br />
most visited finance site with<br />
31.4 million unique visitors<br />
worldwide, according to<br />
comScore Media Metrix.<br />
MSN’s Money section ranked<br />
second with 21.9 million worldwide<br />
visitors followed by AOL’s<br />
finance section with 14.3 million<br />
visitors worldwide,<br />
comScore said.<br />
Web surfers spent on average<br />
of 54 minutes per visit at<br />
Yahoo’s finance section, giving<br />
the company more opportunity<br />
to serve up ads.<br />
Although it’s just trying to<br />
catch up now, Google believes<br />
its finance section eventually<br />
will outshine its rivals.<br />
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“We feel this is going to<br />
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users have long<br />
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the company took its time<br />
developing the service to make<br />
sure it offered something<br />
unique, Mayer said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company’s twists<br />
include more interactive stock<br />
charts, quicker access to stories<br />
about events affecting a company’s<br />
stock price and photos of<br />
top corporate executives.<br />
Google also is providing links to<br />
corporate commentary by the<br />
writers of Web logs, or “blogs.”<br />
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