CHAPTER NINETEEN

第十九章

PIXAR

皮克斯

Technology Meets Art

技術與藝術相遇

Lucasfilm’s Computer Division

盧卡斯影業的電腦部門

When Jobs was losing his footing at Apple in the summer of 1985, he went for a walk with Alan Kay, who had been at Xerox PARC and was then an Apple Fellow. Kay knew that Jobs was interested in the intersection of creativity and technology, so he suggested they go see a friend of his, Ed Catmull, who was running the computer division of George Lucas’s film studio. They rented a limo and rode up to Marin County to the edge of Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, where Catmull and his little computer division were based. “I was blown away, and I came back and tried to convince Sculley to buy it for Apple,” Jobs recalled. “But the folks running Apple weren’t interested, and they were busy kicking me out anyway.”

1985年夏天，喬布斯在蘋果公司正處于失勢中。一天，他和艾倫·凱一起散步，凱曾在施樂PARC工作，當時是蘋果公司職員。凱知道，喬布斯對創意與技術的交融很感興趣，于是建議他一同拜訪自己的朋友埃德·卡特穆爾（EdCatmull）。卡特穆爾當時是喬治·盧卡斯（GeorgeLucas）電影制片廠電腦部門的負責人。喬布斯他們租了一輛豪華轎車，駕車前往馬林郡，來到盧卡斯天行者牧場（SkywalkerRanch）的邊上，卡特穆爾及其電腦部門就在這里。“我感到很震撼，回公司以后就試圖說服斯卡利把它收購下來。”喬布斯回憶道，“但是管理蘋果公司的那幫家伙對此不感興趣，而且他們正忙著把我趕出去。”

The Lucasfilm computer division made hardware and software for rendering digital images, and it also had a group of computer animators making shorts, which was led by a talented cartoon-loving executive named John Lasseter. Lucas, who had completed his first Star Wars trilogy, was embroiled in a contentious divorce, and he needed to sell off the division. He told Catmull to find a buyer as soon as possible.

盧卡斯影業電腦部門有兩個主要組成部分：一個團隊研發定制電腦，使之能夠將實景電影膠片上的圖像數字化，并融入酷炫的特效；還有一個電腦動畫團隊制作動畫短片，如《安德烈與沃利歷險記》（TheAdventuresofAndréandWallyB.）這部動畫片在1984年的一次行業大會上展出，令其導演約翰·拉塞特（JohnLasseter）聲名大噪。盧卡斯當時已經完成了他的《星球大戰》（StarWars）三部曲的第一部，正陷入一場爭吵不斷的離婚案中，他需要賣掉這個電腦部門。盧卡斯叫卡特穆爾盡快找到買家。

After a few potential purchasers balked in the fall of 1985, Catmull and his colleague Alvy Ray Smith decided to seek investors so that they could buy the division themselves. So they called Jobs, arranged another meeting, and drove down to his Woodside house. After railing for a while about the perfidies and idiocies of Sculley, Jobs proposed that he buy their Lucasfilm division outright. Catmull and Smith demurred: They wanted an investor, not a new owner. But it soon became clear that there was a middle ground: Jobs could buy a majority of the division and serve as chairman but allow Catmull and Smith to run it.

1985年秋，在一些潛在買家都鋳躇不決時，卡特穆爾和聯合創始人阿爾維·雷·史密斯（AlvyRaySmith）決定自己買下這個部門并尋找投資者。于是，他們打電話找到喬布斯，又安排了一次會面，兩人驅車前往喬布斯位于伍德賽德的家中。喬布斯先是抱怨了一通斯卡利的愚蠢和背信棄義，然后提議自己全資買下盧卡斯影業的電腦部門。卡特穆爾和史密斯拒絕了。他們想要一位主要投資者而不是一個新的所有者。不過很快就有了一個折中辦法：喬布斯出資購買多數股權，并擔任董事長，但由卡特穆爾和史密斯來運營。

“I wanted to buy it because I was really into computer graphics,” Jobs recalled. “I realized they were way ahead of others in combining art and technology, which is what I’ve always been interested in.” He offered to pay Lucas $5 million plus invest another $5 million to capitalize the division as a stand-alone company. That was far less than Lucas had been asking, but the timing was right. They decided to negotiate a deal.

“我之所以想收購這個部門，是因為我真的很喜歡計算機圖形。”喬布斯后來回憶道，“看到盧卡斯影業電腦部門這些人的時候，我意識到，在融合藝術與技術的領域，他們走在了其他人前面，而這個領域一直都是我的興趣所在。”喬布斯知道，在未來數年里，計算機將會比現在強大上百倍，他相信這會給動畫和逼真的3D圖形帶來巨大進步。“盧卡斯團隊正在研究的問題需要非常強大的計算處理能力，這使我意識到他們必將引領歷史。我喜歡這樣的發展方向。”

The chief financial officer at Lucasfilm found Jobs arrogant and prickly, so when it came time to hold a meeting of all the players, he told Catmull, “We have to establish the right pecking order.” The plan was to gather everyone in a room with Jobs, and then the CFO would come in a few minutes late to establish that he was the person running the meeting. “But a funny thing happened,” Catmull recalled. “Steve started the meeting on time without the CFO, and by the time the CFO walked in Steve was already in control of the meeting.”

喬布斯提出的條件是，向盧卡斯支付500萬美元，然后自己再投入500萬美元，從而將這一部門變成獨立的公司。這比盧卡斯一直以來所要求的金額低得多，然而時機對喬布斯來說卻剛剛好。于是，雙方決定通過談判達成交易。盧卡斯影業的CFO發現喬布斯傲慢又易怒，在談判各方即將舉行會談時，這位CFO對卡特穆爾說：“我們必須建立正確的等級次序。”他的計劃是，將所有人和喬布斯都聚集在一間會議室里，然后這位CFO晚到幾分鐘，以表明他才是主持會議的人。“但是有趣的事情發生了，”卡特穆爾回憶說，“史蒂夫在CFO缺席的情況下按時開始了這次會議，而當那位CFO走進來時，史蒂夫已經掌握了會議的控制權。”

Jobs met only once with George Lucas, who warned him that the people in the division cared more about making animated movies than they did about making computers. “You know, these guys are hell-bent on animation,” Lucas told him. Lucas later recalled, “I did warn him that was basically Ed and John’s agenda. I think in his heart he bought the company because that was his agenda too.”

喬布斯只見過喬治·盧卡斯一面，盧卡斯警告他說，比起做電腦，這個部門的人更關心制作動畫電影。“你知道，這些家伙都是在拼命做動畫。”盧卡斯對喬布斯說。盧卡斯后來回憶表示：“我確實警告過他，這個部門基本是按埃德和約翰的計劃來開展工作的。我覺得在他看來，買下這家公司是因為它也符合他自己的計劃。”