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10 – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2006 THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL
COMMERCE
Pixar’s sale to Disney
animates collectors
of stock certificates
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Business Writer
SAN FRANCISCO -- Pixar
Animation Studios Inc.’s
upcoming sale to Walt Disney
Co. has inspired an audience
of investors more interested in
buying a piece of paper than a
piece of the $7.4 billion deal.
All these people really
want is one of Pixar’s stock
certificates, the commemorative
scrolls given to shareholders
of the computer animation
pioneer behind hit
movies like “Toy Story” and
“The Incredibles.”
Once Disney absorbs the
company later this spring,
Pixar will stop issuing the colorful
certificates decorated
with “Toy Story” stars Woody
and Buzz Lightyear -- just one
of the reasons why this particular
piece of paper is so treasured.
“It’s like a piece of art,”
said Brian Giboney, who
recently added Pixar to his
collection of stock certificates
from about 100 different companies.
“And it’s not something
that you are going to be
able to buy down the road.”
Giboney, 35, keeps his
Pixar certificate in a safe
place, just like the rest of his
collection, because he
believes the documents will
become more valuable as
computer databases increasingly
replace paper records of
stock ownership. He prizes his
collection so much that he
asked The Associated Press to
withhold his home city to
thwart potential thieves.
Other people like San
Francisco resident Lily Chang
want a Pixar certificate purely
for emotional reasons. She
bought five Pixar shares
shortly after the Jan. 24
announcement of the Disney
sale just so she could get a
stock certificate, which she
tucked into one of her old college
textbooks in hopes of getting
the wrinkles out.
“I feel like a dork because
it feels a bit obsessive,” said
Chang, 36, who once dreamed
of working for Pixar. “I am
never going to be selling this
(certificate) on eBay though.
You can’t put a price on sentiment.”
With the Disney deal looming,
many people are buying
just one share of Pixar stock
because that’s the least expensive
way to get certificates
before they become obsolete.
Pixar’s stock price recently
has been hovering around
$65, but getting a certificate
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costs another $35 to $40 in
additional fees at places like
OneShare.com and Frame A
Stock Inc., which specialize in
the service. Throw in the
frame that many people have
been buying to memorialize
the Pixar certificates and the
total cost is closer to $150.
That price hasn’t scared off
buyers at San Francisco-based
OneShare, where orders for
Pixar stock certificates are
running 35 times higher than
the same time last year.
“It’s been like Christmas all
over again for us,” said Byron
Beach, OneShare’s vice president
of marketing.
Pixar sales have tripled at
Frame A Stock, and the Fort
Myers, Fla.-based company
expects demand to accelerate
even more as it steps up its
promotional efforts during the
next month, said President
Tim Stockton.
Stock certificates used to
be the standard way of denoting
ownership in a publicly
held company, but that has
changed dramatically during
the past decade as the securities
industry has shifted to
electronic record-keeping to
reduce costs.
The Depository Trust &
Clearing Corp., which settles
most U.S. stock trades, now
has just 3.4 million stock certificates
in its vaults, down
from roughly 30 million in
1990.
Certificates are expected to
become even more rare with
the passage of a new law last
year in Delaware, where more
than half of the nation’s publicly
traded companies are
incorporated because of the
state’s favorable business
rules. Delaware has dropped a
requirement forcing all companies
to issue stock certificates,
making the choice
optional.
The rise of paperless record
keeping is helping to popularize
scripophily -- the collection
of old stock and bond certificates.
Some of these collectors
are strictly in it for the money,
hoping to come across something
as valuable as vintage
Standard Oil Co. stock certificates
issued in the 19th century.
Some of Standard Oil’s
1873 certificates, signed by
John D. Rockefeller, have
fetched anywhere from
$8,500 to $130,000 apiece,
said Bob Kerstein, who runs
Scripophily.com, which has
become a magnet for collec-
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Other collectors are just
looking for a memento that
sums up a particular era.
That’s one reason why the
stock certificates of Enron
Corp. -- an emblem of corporate
scandal -- were recently
listed on Scripophily for
prices ranging from $49.95 to
$375. Enron’s stock disintegrated
in late 2001 when the
company went bankrupt.
It also helps to have a
flashy certificate. That factor
seems to be driving demand
for eToys Inc., a relic of the
dot-com boom that went
bankrupt in 2001. Its ornate
certificate, featuring toys
alongside its red-and-blue
logo, demands $125 to $250.
Even before the Disney
sale, Pixar was among a handful
of companies whose stock
certificates have been a perennial
favorite.
Other high-demand stock
certificates include Harley-
Davidson Inc., Ford Motor
Co., Dreamworks Animation
SKG Inc., Tiffany & Co.,
Coca-Cola Co., Starbucks
Inc., Microsoft Inc. and Apple
Computer Inc.
Except for a few brief periods,
Disney’s stock certificate
has been the top seller at
OneShare since former bond
trader Lance Lee started the
company a decade ago. Since
then, OneShare has sold more
than $20 million in stock, Lee
said.
Disney’s stock certificates
are adorned with drawings of
Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell
and several other pop culture
icons, making the documents
popular gift items for parents
and grandparents shopping for
children’s gifts with an investment
twist. Because Disney is
buying Pixar with its own
stock, Pixar shareholders will
be eligible to receive a Disney
certificate after the deal is
completed.
Pixar supplanted Disney as
OneShare’s most popular certificate
as soon as the sale was
announced, Beach said. It’s
the longest stretch that any
company besides Disney has
topped OneShare’s sales
charts, which didn’t surprise
Lee.
“If you are a Pixar fan,”
Lee said, “there’s something a
lot more substantial about
buying the company’s stock
certificate instead of getting
some figurine of a character in
one of Pixar’s movies.”
On The Net:
http://www.oneshare.com;
http://www.frameastock.com;
http://www.scripophily.com
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Mickey Mouse gets ready for
Disney’s European cruise vacation
By KELLI KENNEDY
The Associated Press
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Mickey
Mouse is going on a European vacation in the
summer of 2007.
The Disney Cruise Line will sail to Italy,
France and Spain from May to August 2007 as
part of a larger strategy to “chart new waters,”
company officials announced Tuesday.
The Disney Magic will offer eight alternating
10-night and 11-night Mediterranean cruises,
departing from Barcelona, Spain, and stopping
in eight European cities.
Traveling through Europe can be daunting,
especially with small children, company
President Tom McAlpin said. A Disney cruise
takes the guesswork out of what cities to hit,
where to eat and what shows to see, he said.
“The cruise takes care of all of that and people
trust Disney. At the end of the day you
know you’re coming back to the ship and having
five-star dining, great entertainment and
you know your kids are going to have a good
time,” he said.
Disney is considering expanding beyond its
two ships, which have been successful since
they began operating Caribbean voyages in
1998. But “it’s not the right time now,”
McAlpin said.
But the European expansion will have little
impact on the cruise industry overall, an analyst
said. Major players such as Carnival Corp.
and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. already
operate in Europe with cruise lines that cater
specifically to European vacationers.
Even if the unit of The Walt Disney Co.
decided to add a few new ships, it would pale
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in comparison to the 16 ships industry leader
Carnival will add in the next four years on top
of its 80 ship fleet, said Craig Parmelee, a credit
analyst for Standard & Poor’s.
Disney’s announcement does come at a time
when the industry is flourishing. Despite
media reports focusing on crime and safety
problems on vessels, bookings are up, according
to the Cruise Lines International
Association. Ticket prices are also returning to
highs set before the recession and Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
The association projects the number of
cruise travelers to increase by about 500,000
people from last year, to about 11.7 million.
Trips have become more attractive values
because of larger ships, diverse entertainment
options and onboard innovations with luxury
amenities -- supper clubs, bowling alleys,
afternoon tea, movie theaters.
Disney is a relative latecomer to the industry.
It started with the Magic in 1998. It added
the Disney Wonder later that year and now
offers cruises to the Caribbean, the Bahamas
and its own island, Castaway Cay. The cruise
line caters to a niche family market -- there’s
no gambling, entertainment is family oriented
and Mickey and Minnie mingle with young
guests throughout the voyage.
Disney guests like visiting new places,
McAlpin said. The Magic’s trip last year
through the Mexican Riviera out of Los
Angeles was successful, he said.
Next summer, Disney will also offer two 14night
trans-Atlantic sailings to bookend the
Mediterranean voyages. Rates for the 10- and
11-night cruises start at $2,399 per person.
Google introduces finance
section to catch up with rivals
The Associated Press
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -
- Online search engine leader
Google Inc. is devoting a section
of its Web site to information
about the stock market and
corporate America, filling a
gaping product hole as it continues
to battle for Internet traffic
with rivals Yahoo Inc., MSN
and America Online.
The Mountain View, Calif.based
company plans to unveil
its newest channel Tuesday at
http://finance.google.com.
Many of the Google features,
including stock market quotes
and charts, mirror Yahoo’s
finance section, which has been
available for the past decade.
Yahoo operates the Web’s
most visited finance site with
31.4 million unique visitors
worldwide, according to
comScore Media Metrix.
MSN’s Money section ranked
second with 21.9 million worldwide
visitors followed by AOL’s
finance section with 14.3 million
visitors worldwide,
comScore said.
Web surfers spent on average
of 54 minutes per visit at
Yahoo’s finance section, giving
the company more opportunity
to serve up ads.
Although it’s just trying to
catch up now, Google believes
its finance section eventually
will outshine its rivals.
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“We feel this is going to
change the face of finance
sites,” said Marissa Mayer,
Google’s vice president of
search products and user experience.Google
users have long
asked for a finance section, but
the company took its time
developing the service to make
sure it offered something
unique, Mayer said.
The company’s twists
include more interactive stock
charts, quicker access to stories
about events affecting a company’s
stock price and photos of
top corporate executives.
Google also is providing links to
corporate commentary by the
writers of Web logs, or “blogs.”
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