Leon van Ast

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley! Circular entrepreneur. Opinions are my own.

[AFC Ajax @AFCAjax]

He’s here.

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

Hear, hear! The Fourth Turning (1997: theory Strauss-Howe) perfectly explained to the citiziens of Singapore by its PM (2025: due to the taking down of WTO rules based global trade systems by the Trump administration).

[Adam @AdameMedia]

BREAKING:

Singapore PM statement on Tariffs

“A seismic change in the global order”

[WikiLeaks @wikileaks]

Breaking: The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly has voted to confirm that Julian Assange was held as a political prisoner.

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

Iets met 'party like it 1999' #bubbles

[Martin Pelletier @MPelletierCIO]

I have never seen anything like this in my entire investing career. $NVDA

[The Olympic Games @Olympics]

ICON. 🇳🇱

[BuccoCapital Bloke @buccocapital]

Klarna’s AI assistant doing the work of 700 support agents

[AFC Ajax @AFCAjax]

Rest in peace, Franz Beckenbauer ♥️🙏

[Brett Adcock @adcock_brett]

Figure-01 has learned to make coffee ☕️

Our AI learned this after watching humans make coffee

This is end-to-end AI: our neural networks are taking video in, trajectories out

Join us to train our robot fleet: https://t.co/egQy3iz3Ky

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

@MoonnLightNiall @Stefannn0308 @concertatSEA Hier hetzelfde .... #waiting

[De Groene Amsterdammer @DeGroene]

De omstreden onkruidverdelger glyfosaat mag voorlopig nog tien jaar worden gebruikt. Uit ons onderzoek bleek: De Europese voedseltoezichthouder (EFSA) hield belangrijke informatie over parkinson achter bij de goedkeuring van glyfosaat. https://t.co/ciAGlK2AoY

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

Ondanks aangenomen motie in 2e kamer om tegen verlenging glyfosaat te stemmen zorgt @ministerlnv Piet Adema @christenunie persoonlijk voor 10 jaar verlenging van dit gif door stemonthouding. Onverantwoord @ParkinsonNL_ & onnodig; er is nota bene een goed en duurzaam alternatief.

[NOS @NOS]

Glyfosaat mag nog tien jaar worden gebruikt in Europa https://t.co/3M4GgweG8f

[Wouter van Bernebeek @StormchaserNL]

☀️ Gisteravond zag ik 'anticrepusculaire stralen' bij Nijmegen. Dit zijn stralen van de ondergaande zon, die worden gebroken door wolken. De lichtbundels lopen door de hele lucht en komen loodrecht tegenover de zon weer samen, hier richting het oosten dus. Prachtig verschijnsel!

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

This is so great! AI will rock our world beyond your wildest dreams. #Dalle3

[Sam Altman @sama]

also, the video we made for dalle 3 is SO CUTE:

[Leon van Ast @leonvanast]

Singularity approaching fast!!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

https://t.co/VzTxpktH1q

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Steve Jobs was the single largest individual shareholder in Disney and it all started with this $5 million check.

The year was 1986 and Steve Jobs was in exile from Apple.

The company that would one day become Pixar was called Graphics Group. Graphics Group was owned by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

George Lucas was getting divorced and needed to sell off some assets.

Steve Jobs agreed to give George Lucas $5 million and invest another $5 million in the company.

This was not the first time Steve Jobs had expressed interest in the technology behind Graphics Group.

When he was still at Apple, Jobs tried to get Apple’s board to buy the company.

They turned him down.

This is Steve explaining why he was interested in acquiring Graphics Group:

“These guys were way ahead of us on graphics, way ahead. They were way, way ahead of anybody. I just knew in my bones that this was going to be very important."

Steve would eventually invest $54 million of his own money in Pixar.

After several years of failing to sell The Pixar Image Computer, Pixar decided to go all in on making films.

After years of poor sales and rising expenses they were short on cash. To solve this problem Steve signed a deal to produce 3 animated films for Disney.

The first of these movies was Toy Story —the world’s first computer animated feature film.

Now here is where this story gets really interesting:

Steve decided to capitalize on the publicity of Toy Story’s release and take Pixar public at the same time.

Toy Story was released on November 22, 1995.

Pixar went public on November 29, 1995.

Steve's two partners — Ed Catmull and John Lasseter — did not want to go public.

They thought it was too early. They wanted to do a few more films first.

Then Steve laid out his strategy and told them what was likely coming from Disney.

Steve said let’s assume Toy Story is a big success (it was —grossing over $370 million).

When that happens the CEO of Disney — Michael Eisner — will realize he inadvertently created a rival for Disney Animation.

Pixar only had to make two more films for Disney and then they’d be free to do as they like.

Steve said Eisner’s next move would be to try and renegotiate with Pixar and keep Pixar close to Disney.

Steve said if they went public and had more money they’d be able to negotiate better terms with Disney.

Steve wanted a 50/50 split with Disney on returns. In order to request this Pixar had to be able to put up 50% of the production costs.

Going public would allow Pixar to afford this.

The time is now Steve said: "This is our moment."

And he was right. Toy Story was a massive success and Pixar's IPO raised $140 million -- the biggest IPO of 1995.

A few months later Eisner approached Jobs and said he wanted to keep Pixar as a partner.

Eisner accepted Steve’s 50/50 deal.

This partnership wasn't going to last. Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner couldn’t get along.

A few years later negotiations broke down completely and Pixar started looking for other partners.

Then Michael Eisner got fired. The new CEO of Disney was Bob Iger.

When Bob Iger found out he was going to be the next CEO he called his daughters first.

The next person he called was Steve Jobs.

He told Steve he valued Pixar and wanted to make a deal. This is Bob explaining why he felt Disney needed to buy Pixar:

“Michael [Eisner] didn’t understand that Disney’s problems in animation were as acute as they were. That manifested itself in the way he dealt with Pixar. He never felt he needed Pixar as much as he really did. Every negotiation needs to be resolved by compromises. Neither one of them [Eisner and Jobs] is a master of compromise.”

How did Bob Iger realize how badly Disney needed Pixar?

By watching a parade at Hong Kong Disneyland

Iger realized that the only characters in the parade that had been created in the past decade were Pixar’s:

“A lightbulb went off. I’m standing next to Michael [Eisner], but I kept it completely to myself, because it was such an indictment of his stewardship of animation during that period. After ten years of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, there were then ten years of nothing.”

Bob begins to negotiate with Steve to buy Pixar and does something very unusual:

He tells Steve how badly Disney needs Pixar.

Even more surprising this tactic worked. This is how Steve reacted:

“That’s why I just loved Bob Iger. He just blurted it out. Now that’s the dumbest thing you can do as you enter a negotiation, at least according to the traditional rule book. He just put his cards out on the table and said, ‘We’re screwed.’ I immediately liked the guy, because that’s how I worked too. Let’s just immediately put all the cards on the table and see where they fall.”

Disney purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion in Disney stock.

And Steve Jobs went from the single largest shareholder in Pixar to the single largest individual shareholder in Disney.

[AFC Ajax @AFCAjax]

4 Edson. 4 Mexico. 4 the Future.

[Eurosport Nederland @Eurosport_NL]

🚴🌈 | 38 jaar moesten we wachten, maar hij heeft 'm! Mathieu van der Poel is met kapotte schoen de eerste Nederlandse WERELDKAMPIOEN sinds Zoetemelk! 🥇🇳🇱 #GlasgowScotland2023

📺 Koers kijk je op discovery+

[Martien Visser @BM_Visser]

Economische groei en broeikasgasemissies hoeven niet samen te gaan.
#grafiekvandedag
De NL broeikasgasemissie lag in 2022 circa 20% lager dan in 1970, en 32% lager dan in 1990, terwijl het NL Bruto Binnenlands Product, inflatie-gecorrigeerd, met een factor 3 is gestegen.

[Ferdinand Meeus @fmeeus1]

KNMI bevestigt : niet CO2 maar waterdamp is belangrijkste broeikasgas.
Onderwatervulkaan slingerde in 2022 150 miljoen ton waterdamp de atmosfeer in en volgens NASA kan dat best (mede) oorzaak zijn van recente opwarming.
https://t.co/GhT3EQMIhc

[Dr Robert Bohan @RobertBohan]

Sinead O’Connor (1966-2023)

Nothing compared to you.

Ar dheis Dé