Pixar became a publicly traded company in 1995 while Steve Jobs was its chairman.
Pixar’s initial public offering took place shortly after the release of Toy Story, its first feature film. The film became a major commercial and cultural success, creating strong investor interest in the computer-animation company. Pixar’s stock began trading on November 29, 1995.
Steve Jobs had purchased the computer-graphics division of Lucasfilm in 1986 and developed it as an independent company called Pixar. Although Pixar’s technology business had struggled for years, its agreement with Disney to produce computer-animated feature films transformed its prospects.
The IPO made Jobs a billionaire on paper and made him Pixar’s largest individual shareholder. Disney later acquired Pixar in 2006, and Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder as part of that transaction.