Company Town : Jacobson Reunited at Disney With Former Boss at Fox

Tom Jacobson has reunited with his former Twentieth Century Fox boss Joe Roth at Walt Disney Co. under an independent production deal. Last week, Jacobson resigned as head of worldwide production at Fox to form his own company. He has now entered a four-year exclusive production agreement to develop and produce movies for the Disney motion pictures group, of which Roth is chairman. Jacobson and Roth are also close friends and their wives, Donna Roth and Susan Arnold (“Unstrung Heroes”) are partnered in their own production company at DreamWorks SKG. Jacobson said he is “very excited” about his new deal and is looking forward to “hitting the ground running and making some great movies.” He will hang out his new company banner, Tom Jacobson Productions, on Disney’s Burbank lot next week.

* Los Angeles publicity whiz Josh Baran will join Microsoft Corp. in November as director of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant’s corporate public relations division. Baran, whose firm has represented Time Warner Inc., Sony Corp. and MCA Inc., will report to Steve Ballmer and will work closely with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

* Eric Yeldell has been named executive vice president of legal affairs at Fox Broadcasting Co.

* Sarah Baisley has become editor in chief of Animation magazine, which will become a monthly publication.

* James A. (Jay) Rasulo has been named to the newly created position of senior vice president of new business development for the Disney Store.

* Adam Sanderson has been promoted to vice president of promotion marketing at fX Networks Inc.

* Former Paramount Communications President Stanley R. Jaffe named his son Robert Jaffe a senior executive with his new production company partly financed by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The younger Jaffe plans to leave his current job as vice president of production for Paramount Pictures sometime this fall.