If Jobs had been alive, would it have merged with Apple and Disney?

Not long ago, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Eiger resigned from Apple’s board of directors. He became a director of Apple in November 2011, shortly after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Bob Eiger said in his memoirs that if Jobs were still alive, Apple and Disney might have merged.

After Disney signed a contract to co-produce and sell movies with Pixar in the 1990s, the relationship between Jobs and Disney, Pixar’s largest shareholder, deepened. But Michael Eisner, who was Bob Eiger’s predecessor, did not match Jobs’ personality, and in 2004 Jobs announced that he would never do business with Disney again.

However, in 2005, Eisner resigned due to distrust at the shareholders’ meeting due to poor performance, and Bob Eiger, then COO, is appointed CEO. As he became CEO, he called Jobs directly to talk to him and worked hard to improve the relationship between Disney and Pixar.

Bob Eiger later established a relationship with Jobs. He says that the first thing he was able to contact Jobs directly to find out about the idea of Disney’s acquisition of Pixar was because he had a close relationship with Jobs. With Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, Jobs became Disney’s largest shareholder and director.

In The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, of his death in October 2011, when you think about Disney’s success after Jobs’ death, Steve Jobs He said there was a moment when he thought it would have been nice if he had been here. It would have been nice to have a conversation with Jobs in my head to become a reality. If Jobs had been alive, he said we would have consolidated the company, or at least seriously discussed the possibility.

At the time Disney’s poor performance, rumors have made it to the industry that Apple was taking over Disney. There is no evidence of whether the acquisition was actually reviewed. CEO Bob Eiger did not reveal to what extent the two sides actually talked about the merger between Apple and Disney, but according to his memoirs, his management strategy was considered real.

As of 2019, Disney has launched its own streaming video service, Disney +, and Apple has launched Apple TV +. It can be seen that the reason Bob Eiger resigned from Apple’s director on September 10 was because he became a competitor in the same edition of streaming video services. Related information can be found here .