There are lots of stories out and about mooting a Disney purchase of Pixar Steve Jobs' other hugely successful company. What's not there is any sort of analysis of Steve Jobs' other company, NeXT and how that guppy swallowed the beached whale that was Apple at the time. If you look at the top executives of NeXT and Apple at the time of the merger and then took a snapshot of Apple's executives a short two years later, all the Apple people were gone, either replaced by outsiders or by their NeXT counterparts. In a very real sense, the corporation known as Apple is Apple in name and brand only. What is sitting at 1 Infinite Loop is NeXT in terms of corporate culture and philosophy which is all that really matters.
If Steve Jobs allows himself to be acquired again, is it really reasonable to think that he'll go through such a merger with anything less than the intention of proving that he can do the same fantastic trick all over again? Why would he tie himself down with a boss when he doesn't have to? Pixar can get a distribution deal anywhere, with anyone. It's got one of the best batting records of any studio in the world. So why sell? For a man with an ego the size of Steve Jobs there has to be more than money at stake. Taking Disney and turning it into a Pixar writ large would fit. Is there any other challenge that would justify the deal? I don't think so.