Steve Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder in 2006.
The change followed The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios. Disney announced the all-stock deal in January 2006, and it was completed in May of that year. Jobs, who had been Pixar’s chairman and largest shareholder, received Disney shares as part of the transaction.
The deal made Jobs Disney’s largest individual shareholder, with roughly 7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. He also joined Disney’s board of directors. Bob Iger, then Disney’s chief executive, led the acquisition and maintained a close relationship with Jobs afterward.
This fact is sometimes confused with Jobs’s position at Pixar. He was Pixar’s chairman and chief executive, but the Disney transaction changed his corporate role and made him a major Disney shareholder. Jobs remained on Disney’s board until his death in 2011.