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When it comes to Steve Jobs, most investors and even non-market watchers probably think of a single word: Apple. After all, Apple is the company that Mr. Jobs co-founded in the 1970s, when he was just a cocky twenty-something (as opposed to a cocky fifty-something). It's also the one he has been chief executive of twice -- once during its early years of success, and then more recently as the architect of Apple's stunning metamorphosis from computer industry also-ran into personal-electronics titan. And of course, whenever Apple introduces new products to its worshipful fans, the guy at centre stage in jeans and black turtleneck is Steven Paul Jobs.

Apple's turnaround has been an incredible success story -- right up there with the rise of Google -- and it has had a similar effect on the company's share price, which has gone from a little more than $10 (U.S.) a share two years ago to a recent close of almost $80 a share. That gives the company a market capitalization of more than $65-billion, which -- as Mr. Jobs noted recently in an internal e-mail to employees -- puts the company ahead of Dell, whose chief executive officer once suggested publicly that Apple should close its doors and distribute whatever money was left to shareholders.

Obviously, having the company you run increase in value by 700 per cent in two years has to make you feel pretty good -- and Mr. Jobs has also seen his bet on Apple's future pay off financially. Although he has taken a salary of $1 and no bonus for the past three years, he exchanged some worthless stock options for shares in the company in 2003, and those shares are now worth upwards of $800-million. Not a bad return on an investment, needless to say.

Even compared with his success at Apple, however, the story of Mr. Jobs and Pixar, the digital animation company that created such movies as Toy Story and A Bug's Life, is an eye-opener. The company he bought from film-maker George Lucas for just $10-million two decades ago -- the one that media conglomerate Disney has just announced it is acquiring -- is worth roughly $7.5-billion, and Mr. Jobs owns 51 per cent of the stock.

He may not be as closely associated with it as he is with Apple, and Pixar may not have splashy events like Macworld where Steve shows up in jeans and a turtleneck, but he is clearly in the driver's seat at the animation company (ironically, he is also far better compensated at Pixar, even if you exclude the value of his stock: his salary at Pixar in 2004 was $52). And now he will be pulling a lot of weight at Disney too.

If anything, the success of Pixar is almost as much a vindication for Steve Jobs as the turnaround at Apple. In 1985, just after he turned 30 (which was probably difficult enough for the former boy wonder), Mr. Jobs was unceremoniously dumped by the company he co-founded. Just a few months later, he bought control of Pixar from George Lucas, but most analysts seemed to see it as little more than a toy -- something for Steve to play with while he nursed a grudge against the Apple board. Many felt the same about NeXT, the computer company he founded at about the same time (he eventually had some vindication there too: in 1997, Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs rejoined the company).

Pixar started slowly, since it took years for the company to put together its first digitally animated movie, Toy Story -- which was released in 1995 by Disney, as part of a joint venture between the two companies. But the critical and popular acclaim the film received led to a string of almost universally successful movies, including Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. As Pixar has gone from strength to strength, Disney has grown weaker, particularly on the animation side, and the company was also caught up in a long-running boardroom battle involving CEO Michael Eisner and several key shareholders. Disney has also had several run-ins with Pixar over the terms of the distribution deal between the two, which may have indirectly helped lead to the desire to acquire the company outright.

Obviously, Steve Jobs stands to gain handsomely from a Disney purchase of Pixar -- $3.5-billion or so. And he will become the single largest shareholder in the entertainment and media company, which will give him plenty of clout, not just at Disney but throughout the industry. As some have pointed out, that role could put him in a conflict of interest, since Apple is presumably be talking with Disney and others about licensing video content for iTunes. How will competitors feel about doing such a deal with Jobs being a major Disney shareholder? Then there's the question of whether Disney's bureaucracy might crush the artistry and creativity that have made Pixar so successful.

There are those concerns to consider. But there is another possibility as well: What if Steve Jobs manages to bring a little bit of his creativity and industry intelligence to Disney? Just think of what the Mouse could accomplish.