>From MacOS Rumors:
After Jobs came back to Apple, one Bill Gates saw fit to buy his way into
a company called Dreamworks SKG.
Soon after, Dreamworks began working on a project very similar to a
project called "A Bug's Life", by rival film house Pixar. The Dreamworks
project was called "Antz".
As A Bug's Life was already well into development, Antz had little hope of
catching up. However, Antz not only caught up to A Bug's Life, it passed
it and will be released a month earlier than A Bug's Life. To give an idea
of just what a feat this was, Dreamworks' made a last minute deal with a
toy manufacturer to market Antz products. These deals normally take 12
months. Dreamworks gave them 1 month.
Most in the film industry feel that A Bug's Life will be the far superior
movie - both in terms of plot and animation quality. The mad dash to get
Antz out first only confirms this.
Why this rush to get a possible loser movie out before A Bug's Life? If
the movie is as bad (or simply nothing special) as some are suggesting, it
can't be for the money.
Enter minority partner, Bill Gates. Rumor has it that Mr. Gates himself
was pushing to get Antz out ahead of A Bug's Life. Gates can certainly
afford to compensate Dreamworks for any lost revenue on the deal.
And why, you ask? To distract Steve Jobs from his duties at Apple
Computer. After all, Jobs is CEO of Pixar and only Interim CEO of Apple.
If push came to shove and he were needed at Pixar, Apple would have to
take a back seat.
We expect that this was a "punishment" for Jobs' not caving into to Gates
demands that Apple withdraw Quickdraw from the Windows market.
When the DOJ starts investigating, don't forget where you read this....
See fnews.yahoo.com/fool/98/09/18/trouble_980918.htm for confirmation of
parts of [this message.]
k