Book excerpt: as he exits Apple's board, Disney's Bob Iger recounts talks with Steve Jobs before Disney bought Pixar, and how their friendship grew
As he exits Apple's board, the Disney chief reminisces about his relationship with its mercurial founder—and how their radical visions aligned to save two companies.
Context & Ripple Effects
This excerpt arrives days after Iger resigned from Apple's board — a notable reversal, since in April he had publicly said he planned to stay on even as Disney+ headed for Apple TV. The book passage supplies the backstory the filings never did: the Steve Jobs relationship that produced the Pixar acquisition and made Iger the rare media chief with a genuine inside line to Cupertino.
It also sets up how later Disney chapters read. The exit interview covering his legacy and handoff to Josh D'Amaro treats the Pixar deal as a cornerstone of that legacy — one built on personal CEO chemistry that neither Chapek nor D'Amaro inherits.
First-order effects
- Iger's departure severs Disney's last formal tie to Apple's board at the exact moment Disney+ competes head-on with Apple TV, removing the personal channel he used to manage that rivalry.
Second-order effects
- With the Jobs-era friendship now history rather than leverage, Disney and Apple negotiate distribution and platform terms as ordinary adversaries instead of through founder-level relationships.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, big media-tech deals increasingly hinge on structural logic rather than individual CEO bonds — the Iger-Jobs model of two companies saved by aligned leaders has no obvious successor pairing.
The trend: Media-tech alliances are shifting from founder friendships to structural competition, with streaming turning former partners into rivals who no longer share board seats.