Bob Iger’s Final Confession: The Real Reason Apple Didn’t Buy Disney

Following his departure as the CEO of Disney earlier this year, Bob Iger is finally opening up about the deals that defined his historic tenure and the massive tech partnerships that almost changed the face of modern media.

In a candid retrospective reflection on his legacy, Iger revealed to Financial Times that Disney went as far as holding actual internal discussions and preliminary conversations with Apple executives about merging the two massive corporations into a single entity.

Industry analysts have spent more than a decade speculating about a potential Apple takeover of Disney, but the details had never been confirmed directly by the man running the studio. Iger described the potential combination as something that would have been truly transformational and equal for both brands.

When Iger originally took the reins of the mouse house back in 2005, his absolute top priority was repairing a fractured relationship with computer animation powerhouse Pixar. At the time, Pixar was led by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Iger engineered a bold $7.4 billion all-stock acquisition of Pixar in 2006, a move that instantly transformed Jobs into Disney’s largest individual shareholder and landed the tech visionary a seat on Disney’s board of directors. The success of the Pixar deal gave Disney a massive creative boost. Iger noted that after the animation studio joined the fold, the company felt unstoppable, paving the way for future blockbuster acquisitions including Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox.

The close personal friendship that blossomed between Iger and Jobs created a natural bridge between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Iger eventually joined Apple’s board of directors in 2011, serving as a trusted adviser to the tech giant for eight years before stepping down in 2019 due to the competitive conflict of interest brought on by the simultaneous launches of the Disney+ and Apple TV+ streaming services.

In his 2019 memoir, Iger famously mused that if Jobs had survived his illness, the two executives likely would have merged their companies or at least discussed the possibility very seriously. However, these new comments clarify that serious corporate discussions regarding a tie-up actually continued into the post-Jobs era under Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Ultimately, the plan fell apart for a very simple reason. When asked why the high-level talks never progressed into an official agreement, Iger shrugged and explained that Apple simply did not show that much interest in pursuing the proposal.