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Bob Iger · The David Rubenstein Show

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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg Best is about the insight
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  Speaker 1: Denise PELIGRENI on this weekend edition of Bloomberg Best. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure I was there for him,
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  Speaker 1: to help him through what is obviously particularly challenging time.
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  Speaker 1: Bob Iger on handing over the range during a pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: Get a job on camera, work your way up from there,
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  Speaker 1: all the way to you have possibly becoming a network
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  Speaker 1: acorn Al, the Walt Disney executive's career began as on
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  Speaker 1: air talent. I gave it some serious thought. Actually, post
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  Speaker 1: the election of Donald Trump, I gave it a lot
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  Speaker 1: of thought and Iger for president. All this and more
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  Speaker 1: coming up in the next hour of Bloomberg Best. All right,
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  Speaker 1: and if there's anybody associated with Walt Disney besides Walt
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Disney himself and of course Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Well,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that person is Bob Biker, Yeah, Denis, and you know
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  Speaker 1: he's still executive chairman at the company now. We had
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  Speaker 1: a chance to hear from him in depth on the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: David Rubinstein Show Peer to Peer Conversations, and Ker talks
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  Speaker 1: about how hard it's been to separate himself from Disneys,
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  Speaker 1: his role changes, and also about his political ambitions. David
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  Speaker 1: begins here by asking ire about his long and successful
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  Speaker 1: run of the world's most well known media giant. During
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  Speaker 1: the time that you were the CEO. The stock market
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  Speaker 1: value of the company went up about and the market
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  Speaker 1: capitalization about four during that fifteen year period of time.
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  Speaker 1: So my big regret is that I didn't vacue and
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  Speaker 1: by stock. But um, you must be very pleased with
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  Speaker 1: what you accomplished in the fifteen years that you were
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  Speaker 1: in the CEO. Yes, I'm proud would probably be the
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  Speaker 1: right word to use. You know, I inherited a company
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  Speaker 1: that was renowned and had been quite successful, but also
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  Speaker 1: had gone through a period of difficulty on a variety
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  Speaker 1: of levels, and there was a lot of work to do. Um,
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  Speaker 1: and my soul goal was to not only improve a
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  Speaker 1: lot of the company, but to ultimately leave the company
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  Speaker 1: in great hands for my successor. But you weren't as
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  Speaker 1: successful in leaving the company because you had wanted to
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  Speaker 1: leave a few years earlier. And then the they, the board,
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  Speaker 1: said no, you gotta stay longer because you did the uh,
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  Speaker 1: the Fox acquisition, among other things. So, um, why were
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  Speaker 1: you so good at running the company but not so
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  Speaker 1: good at leaving the company? You know? I'm told that
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  Speaker 1: that's a common ailment of CEOs that have had decent
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  Speaker 1: tenure uh. And I So I failed leaving a few times.
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  Speaker 1: The first time we had had a succession process that
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  Speaker 1: didn't work out as we had hoped, and so I
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  Speaker 1: agreed to stay on a little bit long. And then
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  Speaker 1: the last time was solely due to the largest acquisition
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  Speaker 1: that we had ever made, and that was most of
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  Speaker 1: the assets of Century Fox. And I knew when I
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  Speaker 1: proposed doing that to the board, which was close to
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  Speaker 1: when I was supposed to step down, that they would say, well,
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  Speaker 1: we will support you in this effort as long as
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  Speaker 1: you agreed to stay. They did not want, and for
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  Speaker 1: good reason, to go through a CEO transition just at
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  Speaker 1: the time we were making the biggest acquisition we've ever made.
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  Speaker 1: It was rumored in the press and in your book
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  Speaker 1: that you were thinking of leaving Disney to run for
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  Speaker 1: president of the United States. So whoever heard of a
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  Speaker 1: businessman running for president United States? So where did you
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  Speaker 1: get that idea? From? Crazy idea? Right? Um? Well, there
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  Speaker 1: was some truth to that, um, both before the sixteen
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  Speaker 1: election and then after the sixteen election. I gave it
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  Speaker 1: some serious thought. Actually, post the election of Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 1: I gave it a lot of thought and actually did
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  Speaker 1: a fair out of homework to study the feasibility of it.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm not sure I would have gotten as far
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  Speaker 1: as actually running, because as the realist in me was
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  Speaker 1: sinking in, I was starting to think more and more
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  Speaker 1: about how difficult the path might be in the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: Party for a businessman to actually get the nomination. What
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  Speaker 1: would you say, is the chance that you would be
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  Speaker 1: interested in serving in a senior position in a Biden administration?
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  Speaker 1: Would that be something of any interest to you? Or
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  Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to come to Washington for that kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing. Well, I've always thought about what the next
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  Speaker 1: chapter in my life might be post Disney, because there
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  Speaker 1: will be a post Disney soon. I'm not going to fail.
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  Speaker 1: Stepping down again, uh and giving back in some fashion,
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  Speaker 1: serving our country in some fashion is certainly something that
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  Speaker 1: I would consider seriously. But a lot of it would
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  Speaker 1: depend on, you know, what it is, what the opportunity is,
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  Speaker 1: and whether I thought it would be something that I
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  Speaker 1: would both be stimulated by and and and be good at.
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  Speaker 1: So let's go back to the Disney situation. Uh, you
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  Speaker 1: announced that you're gonna step down finally at the end
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  Speaker 1: of two thousand nine become executive chair and then COVID
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  Speaker 1: hit comes along, and did COVID make it possible for
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  Speaker 1: you to leave as the same way you thought you
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  Speaker 1: were gonna be out to leave, or do do you have
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  Speaker 1: to spend more time at at Disney when COVID hit, Well,
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  Speaker 1: what actually happened was I stepped down, uh from the
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  Speaker 1: CEO position as you mentioned, to become executive chairman and
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  Speaker 1: to focus all of my time and energy on our
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  Speaker 1: creative process because I thought, obviously what we create is
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  Speaker 1: the most valuable product that we have, and I thought
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  Speaker 1: that the best thing I could do in terms of
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  Speaker 1: um enabling my successor to succeed at the job would
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  Speaker 1: hind him a very very rich pipeline of great creativity.
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  Speaker 1: Uh And and in fact, I have spent almost all
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  Speaker 1: of my time since I stepped into this role doing
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  Speaker 1: just that. Um. However, I also wanted to make sure
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  Speaker 1: he was success full in in other respects as well.
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  Speaker 1: And he had not handled a crisis that was anything
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  Speaker 1: like this, by the way, No, nor had I, and
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  Speaker 1: so UM I you know, I wanted to make sure
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  Speaker 1: I was there for him to help him through what
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  Speaker 1: is obviously particularly challenging time, not only for the world,
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  Speaker 1: but very specifically for our company. And I've done just that.
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  Speaker 1: So he's been the CEO, he's been running the company
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  Speaker 1: from the day he stepped into that role. UM. I
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  Speaker 1: feel confident that he is doing a good job, and
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  Speaker 1: we'll do a good job into the future. And I've
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  Speaker 1: probably been there for them a little bit more than
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  Speaker 1: I might have expected. I think one of the hardest
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  Speaker 1: things is in in uh, passing the baton on to
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  Speaker 1: someone else. You know, you expect that you're going to
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  Speaker 1: spend some in in in a situation where I was
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  Speaker 1: going to continue as an employee and executive of the company,
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  Speaker 1: I expected I would spend more time with him, meaning
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  Speaker 1: being more physically present as an advisor and as a
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  Speaker 1: support for him. That obviously has has not happened. Been
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more challenging. So if somebody was an
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  Speaker 1: outsider and they'd say, well, COVID is hitting the United States,
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  Speaker 1: hitting other places, the kind of companies that aren't going
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  Speaker 1: to do well. Our companies, that say, are in the
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  Speaker 1: theme park business, the live entertainment business, the cruise ship business,
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  Speaker 1: the hotel business, um, and those are all the businesses
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  Speaker 1: that you're in. Yet your stock has really rallied and
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  Speaker 1: and done reasonably well. Why do you think you haven't
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  Speaker 1: been as hard hit and financially as you might think
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  Speaker 1: on from the outside. I think the reason our our
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  Speaker 1: stock has been resilient and the company has been resilient
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  Speaker 1: is we were on extremely solid footing as a company
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  Speaker 1: going into this, meaning our businesses were all doing well
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  Speaker 1: and their prospects for the future were actually quite bright.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think the street has looked at us
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  Speaker 1: UM knowing that we've been affected in dramatic fashion by COVID,
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  Speaker 1: but also realizing that when it ends, we will have
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  Speaker 1: the ability to rebound in a significant way. In addition
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  Speaker 1: to that, we had pivoted in a very significant way
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  Speaker 1: in the direct to consumer digital entertainment direction, meaning we
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  Speaker 1: launched Disney plus, ESPN Plus and in the acquisition of
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  Speaker 1: One Century Fox for a controlling share of Hulu. So
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  Speaker 1: we moved into a space that is not only very
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  Speaker 1: exciting and in many respects the future of entertainment, but
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  Speaker 1: one that invests the investment community is looking at very positively.
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  Speaker 1: So how did a nice Jewish boy from New York
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  Speaker 1: wind up running Disney? Let's go through that. You grew
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  Speaker 1: up in the New York area, Is that right? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it is kind of by the way, it's a pinch,
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  Speaker 1: pinch yourself moment. And I grew up in a relatively
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  Speaker 1: modest background, lower middle class. My dad was a well
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  Speaker 1: educated man the advertising business, but he suffered from terrible
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  Speaker 1: manic depression and it made it very difficult for him
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  Speaker 1: to hold a job. My mother became an employee at
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  Speaker 1: a high school library junior high school live Rurry later
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  Speaker 1: on in my in my childhood, to help, you know,
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  Speaker 1: support our family. But it was modest back room. But
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  Speaker 1: I but I loved. I never felt poor and I
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  Speaker 1: never felt deprived. Of anything, including love. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: my family, your parents didn't say you need to be
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a lawyer or a doctor or something like that. They
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  Speaker 1: didn't say that to you. There was a little bit
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of a push for me to be a doctor because
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  Speaker 1: my mother's oldest brother was. But no, my my father
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  Speaker 1: and my mom were pretty good at letting me pursue
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  Speaker 1: whatever my dreams were. And my dreams early on were
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  Speaker 1: to become Walter Cronkite or a television news anchor person.
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  Speaker 1: I actually became a weatherman when I left Ithaca College
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  Speaker 1: for a local TV station there, and that was sort
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  Speaker 1: of the start. Get a job on camera and then
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  Speaker 1: hopefully work up work your way up from there all
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  Speaker 1: the way to you know, possibly becoming a network anchor man. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that didn't happen. I lost confidence in myself and my
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  Speaker 1: ability to actually fulfill that dream, and so I pivoted
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  Speaker 1: and took a job behind the scenes in reduction at
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  Speaker 1: ABC in um the middle of nineteen seventy four. So
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: if you ever thought you could have been outroker if
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: you were really good at being a weatherman, that's true. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: So you know, I I teased every once in a while,
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  Speaker 1: I'll go into one of our TV stations or visit
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  Speaker 1: Good Morning America, And I warned them that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: my next job maybe there's and I may, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I may become the weather person on Good Morning America.
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  Speaker 1: So initially you were doing some production at ABC and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: so forth, but eventually went into the sports area. So
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: did you think your career was going to be basically
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: one day running ABC Sports and that would be the
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  Speaker 1: highest that you would have rise to. That would have
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: been fine with me. And actually there are a number
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: of steps along the way that if I had achieved them,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you know, would have been absolutely fine with that being
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: kind of the last job. Um, yes, I would have
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  Speaker 1: loved to have been president of ABC Sports. Interestingly enough,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I never got that opportunity. The people who had purchased
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: ABC from Capital Cities Communication, Tom Murphy and Dan Burke,
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  Speaker 1: actually took me out of that role and sent me
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: out to l A to run the entertainment division of
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  Speaker 1: ABC or primetime programming, which is a huge step for
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  Speaker 1: me into a an area of the business that I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: had very little familiarity with. But they believed in me
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  Speaker 1: and gave me that shot. So when you you're doing
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: very well out there, then ABC says, you're doing so well,
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  Speaker 1: we want you to come back to New York and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: kind of help run the whole company. Um, did you
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  Speaker 1: want to go back to New York? At that point
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  Speaker 1: I did. I was ready. I had done my four
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  Speaker 1: and a half year stint at ABC Entertainment. I liked
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: l A, but I was ready to go back to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: New York. And they offered me the job to be
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: president of ABC, the ABC network. Now you're the big shot.
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  Speaker 1: You are going to be. You're running the whole company.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, Cap Cities people say,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: guess what, We're gonna sell the company to Disney. So
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: was that something you were happy with or did you
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: think there was a role for you? Then? Well, it
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was an incredible time. It was the summer of and UM.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I had been told by Tom Murphy, who was in
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the chairman, that um, it was likely I had become
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  Speaker 1: the next CEO. I was CEO, which I thought it
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: was great. Warren Buffett, by the way, was our largest shareholder,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and I thought he had some enough faith in me.
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  Speaker 1: But Michael Eisner approached us and made an offer that
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: not only we felt we couldn't refuse, but we thought
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it was in the best interest to the shareholders of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the company. Turns out we were right. And look, in
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the back of my mind, even though Michael made it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: very very clear that they were never going to be
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: a guarantee, I thought, if I played my cards right,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: if I performed well, I could potentially run the Walt
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Disney Company something at some point. So eventually, Um, Michael
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Eisner decides to retire a little earlier than maybe he
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: had thought he was going to retire. The board says,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we have to go look for somebody to run the company.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Did they just call you up the next day and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: say it's your job or did you have to kind
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: of go through a little beauty contest. Yeah, a little
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: beauty contest would be an understatement. We as I mentioned
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: at the beginning of this discussion, we had gone through
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a tough period of time, um, and the board fell
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that and rightfully so looking back, that they had to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: be expensive in their thinking about who the next CEO
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: should be, and and they created a you know, a
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: true contest. They considered a number of outside candidates, They
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: interviewed outside candidates. They said to me that I was
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the only inside candidate. But They made pretty clear at
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the beginning that not only was it not a guarantee,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: but it was less likely that I would get it
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: because I had been CEO for five years and they
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: they they seemed intent on bringing change to the company
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: because they felt it was needed. UM. And so as
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the insider, I actually had the outside track, not the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: inside track. So eventually they call you up and say
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the job is yours. And subsequently, as I mentioned the outset,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: your stock is up about four plus percent and market
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: capps about four plus percent. Did anybody ever call you
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: up and say, hey, we made the right decision. We're
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: sorry we made you go through that process. Did anybody
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: do that? No one said that we're sorry we to
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: go through the process. Um. They on a number of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: occasions board members were very generous in their compliments of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: me and to me about the job that I was doing.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, looking back, I think they thought
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: they made they made the right decision. And look, I
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: think that the numbers speak for themselves. And the position
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of the company today is um, you know, far different
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: than it was back then. UM. And you know a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: lot of that was due to strategy that was laid
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: out even in the succession process because I discussed some
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of the things I wanted to accomplish, uh and being
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: able to execute that strategy over the years. In your book,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: you point to four acquisitions you made. Let me try
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to go through each of them with you. One of
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the first ones was pixar UM. You Disney had a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: complicated relationship with pixar UM. How did you convince Steve
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Jobs to sell you Pixar And was that an easy
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: decision to convince the board to buy Pixar and what
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was thought to be a pretty high price. Yeah, we
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: paid over seven billion dollars for Pixar, And it was
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: an idea that I had, uh right right away. In fact,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I laid that idea on the table to the board
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: in my first meeting at CEO with a company which
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure it's the right way to start, UM,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: but we had gone through a period of time where
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Disney Animation had been faltering UM almost a decade and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we had a very good um. Uh. We had had
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of success with Pixar and what was basically
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: a joint venture with them that was ending and Steve Jobs,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: you know, in a very very um difficult and kind
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of in your face manner. UH told us publicly, meaning
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: he made announcement publicly that the Pixar relationship with Disney
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: would end. I felt that I had to address UH
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Disney Animation that it needed it needed a huge improvement,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and I thought the fastest way to accomplish that, albeit
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the riskiest and the most expensive, was to buy Pisar,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: not only to bring pis Are in as part of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the company, but bring the executives that would created all
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the successive Pixar and have them turned Disney Animation around.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And that was my pitch to the board, and it
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: took UM on the board side. It took from October
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to January January to convince them it was the right thing,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and a lot of UM. I used up all the
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: capital I had, and I didn't have much because I
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: was a brand new CEO UM. But I also was
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: able to convince Steve Jobs that it was a good idea.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: When the notion of buying pis Are came to me,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I called him up. I was actually quite nervous. I
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: got him on the phone and I said, I've got
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a crazy idea. Can I come up and talk to
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you about Because I didn't think I should broach the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: subject on the phone. Well, I don't know how well
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you knew Steve, but anyone who knew Steve would know
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that if you said to Steve, I have a crazy idea,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: he would have to hear it right away. So the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: notion that I would say that to him and then say,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: but I'll come up and talk to you, it was ridiculous.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And he made me tell him on the phone, like
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: in the minute, what I had in mind. What was
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: my crazy I deal? He said, well, it's not that crazy. Um,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: why don't we Why don't you come up and we'll
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: talk about it. And that led to a very very
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: interesting discussion with him on the subject us buying Pixar
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and Steve becoming the largest shareholder of the Walt Disney Company,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a member of our board and a true friend of mine.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That was just a simple result of that process. Right
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: before the Disney board is about to approve the acquisition,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: he tells you something about his health, that he has
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: his cancer, and returned, so did you ever think about
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: changing the they proceeded proceeding to go forward the deal
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: or not. Actually, we were on the Pixar campus basically
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: preparing for the announcement which Steve and I were going
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: to make, and he said, can we go for a walk.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: And he told me that he was going to tell
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: me something that only his wife and his doctors knew,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and that was that the cancer that he had had
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a few years earlier that he was operated on, had
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: come back in a different form, and he wanted me
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: to know it because he wanted me to He wanted
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to give me a chance to back out of the deal.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: At that point, I looked at my watch and it
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: was incredible. It was thirty minutes before we were announcing
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: a seven plus billion dollar deal that everybody that needed
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: to approve it had approved. UM and I. It's not
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: like I had an opportunity to phone anybody and ask
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: for their advice, because he demanded confidentiality. UM and I
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: made a decision kind of on the spot, which is
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: that we were buying Pixar, that while Steve was important
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: in the acquisition because he would become a board member
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and a shareholder, he was not material to the Pixar
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: deal itself. And therefore I thought that I was exercising
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the right set of responsibilities as the CEO of the company,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and and and in asking shareholders ultimately to approve a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: large acquisition. And so while if we went to make
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the announcement with me carrying that incredibly heavy news inside me,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and it was a secret actually that held for a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: few years that the world didn't know. Um. And that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: was in early two thousand and six, and he lived
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: until October of two thousand eleven. So I had the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: benefit of not only his friendship and his advice in
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: his position on the board, but you know of of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the of the wisdom that Steve Job brought to any room,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: any situation, wisdom and an incredible talent and instinct. How
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Disney has a lot of characters, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Mini Mouse, so forth. Why did you need to go
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: by the characters from Marvel Entertainment? Um, that's was your
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: next big acquisition, another comic book series of characters. Why
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: did you feel that was such an important deal? In
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: two thousand and five, when I became CEO, we were
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: starting to see the very very a huge amount of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: disruption to our business. And one of the things that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: mostly thanks to technology, and one of the things that
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: new technology was bringing was an explosion of of what
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: was being produced of creativity, uh, and consumer choice in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the in the entertainment field, and I thought that with
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: so much more consumer choice UM, that high quality branded
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: entertainment would be even more valuable. So after the Pixar
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: acquisition was successful, we created a list of acquisition targets
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: at Disney and they all were consistent with what I
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: just laid out. We were looking for high quality branded
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: entertainment and Marvel and Star Wars were at the top
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: of the list. So you then went to talk to
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: George Lucas and said, by the way, UM, I'd like
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: to buy your company and we will make Star Wars
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in the future, and you can watch the movie, but
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: we're gonna make it. Was that hard for him to
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: give up the the create creative control of Star Wars.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: It was, but again, you know, we saw in Star
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Wars something that was extraordinary, like Marvel and like Pixar
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and like Disney, as I talked earlier, and the difference
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: being that George was the creator of it and the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: soul shareholder of it, and it was really who he was.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: And I think he explained to me at some point
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: that you know when he passes is he will say
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Star Wars creator George Lucas. This was, you know, like
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: you know, selling his birth right. It was an incredibly
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: difficult thing for him. I had a lot of empathy
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: for him, but it was hard. And I don't know
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: whether he has has second thoughts about it. He's never
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: he hasn't expressed that to me, But I would guess
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that it's worked out really well for him, for his family.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: It's certainly worked out well for us. I can't speak
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: for him, but I think he's happy with the stock
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: price increase that he got from from the acquisition. But again,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I can't speak for him. Let me ask him about
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the last acquisition. Um, you know, the ones that you've made,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: they weren't what I would call bet your company kinds
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: of acquisitions. They were expensive, but they weren't exactly fifty
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and sixty billion dollar acquisitions. So when Rupert Murdoch said
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: he might be interested in selling part of his company, Uh,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: did you worry about if it didn't work out, it
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: could be the end of your job, at the end
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of your career and things like that. No. Um, Look,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I've gone into every one of these acquisitions with the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: level of confidence that not only were they the right
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: acquisition at the right price that, but that we could
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: execute the vision that we had when we laid out
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the reasoning behind the acquisition. Maybe I had too much confidence.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know, But so far, so good. So now
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: as executive chairman, Uh, you have a little more free
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: time than maybe when you had the CEO. And if
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you don't go into the Biden administration? Uh, what are
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: you going to do to top what you've done and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to keep yourself energized? I read you just went onto
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the board of a new food company. What do you
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: want to do to top what you've already done. I
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: don't really have a need to top what I've done
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: at all. I'm extremely satisfied with what I've accomplished. UM,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: And you know I wouldn't if I could do it again,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't change anything, I don't think. So I'm really
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not looking to do that at all. I'm looking
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: for things that are stimulating, as I mentioned earlier, whether
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: that's in the public or the private sector, I don't know.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So have if you considered the high is calling of mankind,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: which is private equity as another career. You know, I'm
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: not ruling anything out. I know, I know if private
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: equity has served you extremely well. I've had some feelers
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: from that space, but I've not made any decisions about
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: what I do next. I think that I'm very excited
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: about the next chapter. You know. Um, I'm sure it
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: will be a sorry day for me to leave Disney,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: because it's been my home for forty six years, almost
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: forty seven. By the time I leave. On the other hand,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: there's a whole world out there, and I still have
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of energy and a lot of huge amount
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: of curiosity, and I'm looking forward to it. That was
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Bob Iger, current executive chairman and former CEO at Walt
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Disney on the David Rubinstone Show, Pure to Pure Conversations.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And that's it for this hour of Bloomberg Best And
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I'm Denise Pelly Green. This is Bloomberg.