Former Disney CEO Bob Iger spent a day at Disneyland with Daniel Thomas of Financial Times, talking about his tenure at the company, all the deals he did (and didn’t make), Jimmy Kimmel, AI, and more.
Disney Almost Bought James Bond & Twitter
Bob Iger’s time as CEO of The Walt Disney Company is marked by acquisitions: Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox. But Iger had his sights set on some other purchases.
After successfully purchasing Pixar, Iger said, “It was like the clouds lifted and the sun started to shine again. We felt unstoppable.”
He explained, “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.”
Of those three, he managed to acquire Marvel and Star Wars, although James Bond stayed with MGM (now owned by Amazon).
It wasn’t just IPs that Iger looked at, though. He was close to acquiring Twitter from Jack Dorsey “at a very attractive price” but backed out, worrying it would be a “horrible distraction.” Ultimately, Elon Musk bought the social media platform and renamed it X.
There were also years of rumors regarding a merger with Apple. Iger addressed this, saying it would have been “truly transformational and equal.”
“We talked about it internally,” he explained, “and we had some conversations with Apple about it, but it never went anywhere.” Iger shrugged and said, “Apple didn’t show that much interest.”
Jimmy Kimmel Controversies
Disney-owned ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been in hot water with the Trump administration twice. In 2025, the host was temporarily suspended over a comment he made regarding the killing of Charlie Kirk. After backlash to the backlash, ABC put Kimmel back on the air less than a week later. TV groups Nexstar and Sinclair agreed to stop preempting the show soon after.
Iger claims that suspension wasn’t politically motivated. “We thought it was in bad taste,” he said. “We just wanted [Kimmel] to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”
Then, a few weeks after Josh D’Amaro took over as CEO, President Trump demanded Kimmel’s firing after he called the First Lady an “expectant widow.” This time, Disney stood by Kimmel and didn’t pull him off the air.
Iger says he “wholeheartedly” endorsed this stance, adding, “I’m thoroughly supportive. It’s what we anticipated needing to do if the government’s threats turned into action.”
Artificial Intelligence
Fans have critiqued Disney’s use of generative AI and there are concerns about how the tech could change the entertainment industry. Financial Times noted that Mickey Mouse can be remade 100s of time with AI tools, especially now that Steamboat Willie is in public domain.
In response, Iger said, “I think that the artist is always going to have it over AI. Mickey Mouse was created almost 100 years ago. A good story, well told, is going to find its audience no matter what.”
Iger’s Retirement
Though Iger has stepped down as CEO, he remains on the company’s board through the end of 2026. That will mark his second retirement, after initially handing the company over to Bob Chapek in 2020. The board fired Chapek and brought Iger back as CEO in 2022.
Iger requested no parties for his final day as CEO back in March. And he apparently packed up his office early.
“I said to Josh a week before my last day, ‘The office is yours.’”
Regarding his retirement, Iger said he’s been here before, “not knowing what it would be like to not have a title, not having an office, not all the infrastructure that comes with it, not knowing whether I get dinner reservations. You know . . . Who am I?” He said leaving Disney is a “huge emotional shift . . . It’s just this . . . It’s an ending.”
He told D’Amaro, “If you want advice, you call me. I’m available 24 hours a day, but I’m not going to call to give you advice . . . I am being very careful not to impose myself.”
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