Bob Iger’s Disney Book Gives Details on Pixar, Fox, Marvel Deals

The broad outline of Iger’s saga is well-known—how he toiled for almost a decade in the shadow of his combative predecessor Michael Eisner and took command of the besieged Magic Kingdom in 2005, rejuvenating it with bold acquisitions such as Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and, later, much of 21st Century Fox. As it turns out, there’s a lot we didn’t know about Iger’s maneuvers and, indeed, the man himself.

Determined to do better than his father, a failed advertising executive who gave up a chance to be a big-band trumpeter, he joined ABC in 1974 and became a protégé of Roone Arledge, the mercurial force behind Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports. Iger admired Arledge’s willingness to rip up shows at the last minute and keep everybody in the editing room until dawn in pursuit of perfection. Less endearing was his proclivity for pitting his underlings against one another, a trait Iger attributes to insecurity.

When the Walt Disney Co. bought ABC’s parent company in 1996, Iger wanted to position himself as Eisner’s No. 2 and possible successor. Instead, Eisner recruited superagent Michael Ovitz, who, Iger writes, spent his time acting like a big shot, interrupting meetings to take calls from Tom Cruise and President Bill Clinton. Ovitz left after little more than a year with a ­scandalous $140 million severance package.

Eisner announced his resignation plans in 2004, leaving Iger to vie with EBay Inc. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman for the top job. He describes this as an often humiliating experience. One of the lowest points came when he had to go to New York to be interviewed by headhunter Gerry Roche, who had lunch brought in during the meeting for himself—but not Iger—then cut things short to catch a plane to a wedding.

Ultimately, Iger prevailed. As CEO, he resuscitated Disney’s ailing animation division with the company’s $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar. In the process he became unlikely buddies with Pixar’s CEO: Steve Jobs. The notoriously brusque Jobs occasionally rankled the diplomatic Disney CEO, calling one of Disney’s budget hotels in Orlando “crap” and telling him that Iron Man 2 “sucked.”

Jobs wasn’t the only difficult personality with whom Iger had to negotiate. He persuaded Ike Perlmutter, the secretive former Israeli military officer who controlled Marvel Entertainment, to sell his company to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion. Iger let him stick around and run everything at Marvel but the movie division. Even so, Perlmutter’s people tried to thwart Disney’s efforts to make Black Panther, saying that a black superhero wouldn’t crush at the box office. “I called Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks,” Iger writes. Black Panther went on to make more than $1 billion.

Then there’s George Lucas, who had seller’s remorse after Iger persuaded him to part with his company in 2012 for $4 billion. Iger writes that Lucas became irate when Disney didn’t religiously adhere to his plans for its first Star Wars sequel, The Force Awakens. Iger tried to smooth things over, inviting Lucas to the premiere and praising him lavishly. Yet in an interview with Charlie Rose, Lucas said that selling his company to Disney felt like turning over his children to “white slavers.” He later apologized, but the experience clearly wounded Iger.

Every major player in Hollywood makes an appearance in The Ride of a Lifetime. Rupert Murdoch approached Iger in 2017 about selling 21st Century Fox to Disney. Iger writes that Murdoch’s idea of an icebreaker at their first chat was to ask, “Are you running for president?” Iger confirms that he had been speaking with prominent Democrats about it, but he wasn’t going to tell Murdoch and have him splash it all over Fox News. The acquisition became its own drama as Comcast Corp. also made a play for the company, and in the ensuing bidding war, Disney ended up paying $71 billion.

It’s hard to blame Iger if he sounds a little weary in the final section of the book. He’s 68. He’d planned to step down in June, but as part of his deal with Murdoch, he’s agreed to stick around until 2021. In November, Iger’s company is scheduled to launch Disney+, the closely observed streaming service, and its success or failure will color his legacy. If anybody needs inspiration now, it’s Bob Iger. His ride isn’t over yet. 

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.