Please choose whether this site may use cookies or related technologies such as web beacons, pixel tags, and Flash objects (“Cookies”) as described below.
You can learn more about how this site uses cookies and related technologies by reading our privacy policy linked below.
Fortune: What Apple’s Steve Jobs brought to Bob Iger’s Disney
Disney's CEO talks about his long and productive friendship withApple'sco-founder.
BY
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, right, shares a laugh with Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger during an Apple media event on September 12, 2006 in San Francisco. Photograph by Justin Sullivan — Getty Images
One of the highlights of Michal Lev-Ram’s cover story in the current issue of Fortune is the section about Bob Iger’s relationship with Steve Jobs, who brought Pixar’s hit-making machine to Disney (DIS) and became, in return, Disney’s largest shareholder and a key advisor.
In a second piece posted Tuesday, Lev-Ram fleshes out that section with new details from her notebook. Among them:
Their paths crossed early; Jobs had dated Iger’s wife’s college roommate.
When Iger got the CEO job at Disney, he called his family, his former boss and Steve Jobs, in that order — even though, Iger confesses, he didn’t know Jobs very well.
“Every once in a while he’d come to me thinking the sky’s falling apart and that our business [the entertainment industry] was screwed.”
“The whole app world, that happened much faster and in more profound ways than he ever anticipated,” says Iger. “He never envisioned an app industry.”
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.
One of the highlights of Michal Lev-Ram’s cover story in the current issue of Fortune is the section about Bob Iger’s relationship with Steve Jobs, who brought Pixar’s hit-making machine to Disney (DIS) and became, in return, Disney’s largest shareholder and a key advisor.
In a second piece posted Tuesday, Lev-Ram fleshes out that section with new details from her notebook. Among them:
Subscribe to read more
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Join today to get the best of Fortune.
$6/month
Billed annually, cancel anytime.
Complete access to Fortune.com and our archive
Fortune On Demand: Original video series and exclusive CEO interviews
One of the highlights of Michal Lev-Ram’s cover story in the current issue of Fortune is the section about Bob Iger’s relationship with Steve Jobs, who brought Pixar’s hit-making machine to Disney (DIS) and became, in return, Disney’s largest shareholder and a key advisor.
In a second piece posted Tuesday, Lev-Ram fleshes out that section with new details from her notebook. Among them:
Want access? You'll need to register.
Access news, features, analysis, and more. Don't worry—it's free.