From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.misc



Disney Failed to Buy James Bond Franchise, Walked Away From
Owning Twitter Hours Before the Deal Closed and Held Apple Merger Talks
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Bob Iger, who stepped down from his second stint as Disney CEO in March,
gave an exit interview to Financial Times in which he revealed that he
tried to acquire the James Bond franchise for Disney amid a spending
spree that included the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars."
Pixar was priority number one for Iger, and the studio "felt
unstoppable" when it acquired Pixar in May 2006 for $7.4 billion.

"It was like the clouds lifted and the sun started to shine again," Iger
said. "We put together a list of acquisition targets. Marvel was one,
'Star Wars' was another, James Bond was one. We had a list and I figured
let's just tick them off and buy them all."

James Bond is the franchise that got away (Amazon is its current owner).
Other companies did, too. Iger told FT that he was close to buying
Twitter from owner Jack Dorsey "at a very attractive price." The plan
was to turn Twitter into a global distribution platform for Disney, but
Iger admitted he got cold feet on the morning of the deal and worried it
would be "a horrible distraction." Elon Musk ended up buying Twitter and
transforming it into X.

Disney also flirted with an Apple merger. Iger first revealed in his 2019
memoir that he believed the two companies would've combined or "at least
discussed the possibility" of merging "very seriously" if Steve Jobs
"were still alive." But now Iger revealed that "some conversations" did
actually take place between Apple and Disney about a merger that Iger
thinks would have been "truly transformational and equal."

"We talked about it internally, and we had some conversations with Apple
about it, but it never went anywhere," Iger said. Apple didn't show that
much interest."

Iger stepped down as Disney CEO in March and was succeeded by Josh
D'Amaro. News broke in April that Iger had taken a role as an adviser to
venture-capital firm Thrive Capital. The New York-based company was
founded in 2009 by Josh Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner,
who is Donald Trump's son-in-law. In September 2022, Iger joined Thrive
Capital as a venture partner.



<https://variety.com/2026/film/news/disney-failed-buy-james-bond-twitter-apple-bob-iger-1236788523/>





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