Bob Iger Is Officially a Legend
A 52-year career just concluded with a fairytale ending.
Bob Iger is officially a Disney Legend. Let’s look back on his storied career.
From Humble Beginnings
Bob Iger earned a college degree in Television and Radio. So, he always knew what he wanted to do. It’s just that his dreams expanded over time.
The fledgling employee started his career at a local television station. He reported the weather to residents of Ithaca, New York if you can imagine that.
Then, ABC hired him as a low-level worker on television sets. At the time, Iger wasn’t exactly living his dream, but it was a start.
A few years later, Disney’s future two-time CEO earned his big break. Legendary sports broadcasting executive Roone Arledge took note of Iger.
Photo: ABC
The latter individual developed a reputation for two things: a tireless work ethic and an ability to get things done. Iger himself has indicated that few respected him during his first 15 years in television.
However, everyone understood that he would complete any task assigned to him. People like that stood out in live sports broadcasting in the 1980s.
Photo: Disney
Eventually, higher-ups noticed to the point that Iger earned a career-defining promotion. He became Vice President of Programming for ABC Sports in 1987. And he never looked back.
As Iger recounts in his first autobiography, Arledge disliked the sudden change in their power dynamic. This odd turn of events would define Iger’s corporate success.
Photo: ABC
Throughout the next decade, Iger learned how to work with prickly personalities.
As fate would have it, mollifying egomaniacs was one of his greatest skills.
Iger Joins Disney
ABC once owned one-third of The Walt Disney Company, but that wasn’t the case when Iger worked at the studio. In fact, Iger wouldn’t join Disney until the company acquired Capital Cities in 1996.
Everything changed for Iger then, even if his early years were rough. At the time, then-CEO Michael Eisner had brought in Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz as his top lieutenant.
Photo: Disney
This move failed completely, wrecking Disney’s Board of Directors’ confidence in Eisner. By this point, Iger and Eisner had developed an odd relationship.
They weren’t friends per se, but Iger worked as Eisner’s fixer. Ultimately, when Ovitz left the company, Iger earned a promotion.
Disney
In 1999, he became President of Walt Disney International. Despite this lofty title, he held little hope of becoming Disney CEO.
Somehow, his odds decreased as Eisner fought Disney scion Roy E. Disney. As Iger later explained, his connections to Eisner worked against him.
Photo: Disney
Despite this fact, Disney’s Board grew desperate and eventually settled on Iger. On October 1st, 2005, 31 years to the day after Walt Disney World opened, Iger became Disney CEO.
Experts in Hollywood and Wall Street alike assailed the promotion. He was supposedly in over his head.
With the benefit of hindsight, such accusations sound ludicrous, but they defined his early years.
“Only Nixon Could Go to China”
No matter what anyone thinks of Bob Iger, they’ll always admit three things about him. The executive is clever, tireless, and dutiful to a point of fault.
These traits proved imperative when Iger made his first bold move as CEO. He went to Steve Jobs, the legendary co-founder of Apple, and pitched a proposal.
Photo: Disney
Jobs controlled the fate of Pixar, which had recently fallen out with Disney. Pixar had famously ended its distribution contract with Iger’s company.
What was Iger’s proposal during this Cold War era? Disney would buy Pixar. The idea sounded laughable on its face, but Iger went directly to Jobs.
Pixar Logo
Taken aback, the notoriously standoffish Jobs paid more attention to Iger’s pitch. As Disney’s CEO would later describe, they worked together on a list of pros and cons.
Importantly, the cons vastly outweighed the pros, yet Jobs eventually said yes. Not only that, the duo became close friends and confidants until Jobs’ death.
Photo: Bloomberg
Meanwhile, outsiders marveled at how Iger had done the impossible in buying Pixar.
The Cashmere Prince
Such shocking purchases became the calling card of Iger’s career as Disney CEO. He’d later convince the cantankerous Isaac Perlmutter to sell Marvel.
Iger also developed a strong relationship with George Lucas, who eventually entrusted Disney with Lucasfilm.
Photo: Disney
Finally, Iger turned a former enemy into an ally with the Fox deal. Disney and Fox fought so much over a 30-year span that Fox once bought the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Owner Rupert Murdoch’s primary goal was to thwart Disney’s attempt at an ESPN West channel.
Robert Iger and Rupert Murdoch
credit: Disney
The deal proved disastrous for Fox, yet it spoke to the acrimony between the companies. Over time, Iger and Murdoch developed a mutual respect, though, and it ultimately paid dividends.
In 2017, Murdoch agreed to sell virtually all Fox media assets to Disney. Murdoch even gave Disney a sweetheart deal, although that part fell through.
Photo: The Telegraph
Comcast bitterly noticed the undervalued assets and bid up the price. Still, Iger and Disney ultimately walked away with most of Fox for $71.3 billion.
To this day, Disney benefits mightily from this transaction, which fuels its streaming business.
Photo: Fox
In fact, Iger proved so far ahead of his time that Paramount is trying to make the same general deal with Warner Bros. Discovery nine years later. Throughout these multi-billion-dollar negotiations, Iger earned a reputation.
Iger operated so transparently and nobly that tech reporter Kara Swisher named him the Cashmere Prince.
A Vision for Tomorrow
Current Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro expresses awe about one part of Iger’s career. When the latter individual became CEO, he identified a core weakness.
Despite being a global brand, Disney lacked a strong international theme park presence. Iger pushed for the Shanghai Disneyland project and later purchased Disneyland Paris.
Photo: Disney
The European theme park had languished under local ownership. So, Iger took control. Since then, Disney has reinvigorated Hong Kong Disneyland as well.
On the Disney Cruise Line side, the Disney Adventure now sails out of Singapore.
Photo: Disney Adventure
Disney will also build a theme park in Abu Dhabi in the 2030s. None of these things would have been possible if not for Iger’s desire to expand the Disney brand.
Photo: Disney
Then, we have the Fox deal, which may yet define Iger’s legacy. Disney had earned a great deal of money by licensing its content to Netflix.
One day, Iger experienced an epiphany: Disney was empowering its biggest future rival.
Photo: Disney
His thought process that day directly led to the creation of Disney+ as well as the Fox purchase. So, even though D’Amaro is now the CEO, Iger is the one who has defined Disney’s future.
Now he’s getting his just rewards as the person who stabilized Disney during the 2000s.
Photo: Disney
As of Sunday, August 16th, Bob Iger is officially a Disney Legend. Disney also awarded him a window on Main Street, U.S.A., and I guess he gets to own the Los Angeles Lakers, too.
In a way, finding a way to buy the Lakers, a pipe dream for a former weatherman, defines Iger’s career.
Photo: Kirby Lee – USA Today Sports
He’s a master of brokering deals that literally no one else could.
