Apple and Next founder Steve Jobs made it to billionaire status with the public offering of Pixar. The stock jumped from $22 to $49 on opening day, closing at $39. (It would have opened at $12 to $14 prior to the success of "Toy Story.") Jobs owns 80% of the company, after buying it from George Lucas for $10M in 1985 and adding another $50M for animation technology. "Toy Story" has grossed $40M in the US since Thanksgiving. [Kathy Rebello, BW, 12/11/95, p. 6.]

"Toy Story" cost about $30M -- very cheap by modern standards -- in a 4.5-year collaboration between Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures. (Disney only wanted to hire 38-year-old director John Lassiter, but he wouldn't leave.) The movie runs 77 minutes (550B bytes), and took more than 800K computer hours -- 90 minutes per second of film -- serving 30 animators. The cowboy character has 712 control points, including 212 in his face. [David A. Kaplan, Newsweek, 12/4/95, p. 54.]

IBM, Apple, and HP will close Taligent and transfer most of its technology to IBM. Apple and HP had developed competing products as a hedge against Taligent's failure. [WSJ, 12/1/95, B8. EDUPAGE.] (The other shoe drops. Kaleida's demise was announced a couple of weeks earlier.)

Apple will be setting up a 100%-owned software subsidiary in India, with authorized capitalization of 200M rupees. [iNews. NewtNews, 11/20/95.]

Apple, IBM, and Motorola have released detailed specifications for their universal computer design, formerly called PReP, then CHRP, and now the PowerPC Platform. [iNews. NewtNews, 11/20/95.]

Amiga Technologies is also planning to base its 1997 "Power-Amiga" on the Motorola Power-PC RISC chip. [Petro Tyschtschenko, Video Toaster Exposition (LA). EDUPAGE, 12/1/95.]

If you're in the market for a PowerMac, you're in luck. Apple just cut the price of 6100-7200 models by 9%-17%, and 25% for its Performa 640CD DOS Compatible. [TidBITS, 12/4/95.]

If you're a member of an Apple authorized user group, check out the prices at the User Group Store, , , (800) 350-4842. [MacWay, 12/5/95.] Another site to try is MacMall, . [, net-hap, 10/4/95.]

If you just need more RAM for your Mac or PC, check the wholesale-level prices at Telecomputer, . [, net-hap, 10/5/95.] Or try Asapc On-Line, , for over 20K different OEM memory modules, with lifetime guarantee. [, net-hap, 10/6/95.] (No endorsement, of course.)

US entrepreneurs might want to check Deborah Lohse's article "Don't Count on Deducting That New PC", WSJ, 10/19/95, C1. [Peter Raeth , SEML, 10/22/95.]