- Bob Iger said in an interview with BBC that he chartered a private jet from Belfast to London to meet Rupert Murdoch
- He said that he could not fly the Disney company jet to London because rival Comcast was likely tracking them in their bid for 21st Century Fox
- Iger also said that he told James Murdoch early on that there was no role for him at the new company and said he was never in the running for CEO
- James, who pocketed $2 billion in the 21st Century Fox deal with Disney, has suggested in the past he was up for CEO but withdrew himself from contention
- Iger also said that he has started watching Succession and it reminds him ‘of a certain family that’s been involved in the media business’
Bob Iger as spoken about the great lengths he went to in order to close the $71.3 billion deal to acquire the bulk of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets.
The Walt Disney Company chief sat down for an interview with BBC that aired over the weekend, and revealed that he decided it was best to make the offer to Rupert Murdoch in person.
‘As, you’d expect, Rupert is a tough negotiator. But he’s true to his word. When he says yes to something, he sticks to it,’ explained Iger.
‘We decided that if we flew a Disney corporate plane to London, it may tip Comcast off that we may be coming in with a bid that was higher than theirs, and we didn’t want anybody to know that.’
He continued: ‘We decided we would leave our plane in Belfast and then charter another plane from Belfast to London so that we wouldn’t fly in with the Disney jet.’
Iger said in the interview that he believes Murdoch sold because of the changing media landscape, and his desire to whittle down his holdings to those that were most successful and manageable.
‘He’d looked at what was going on in the world of media and all the disruption, and he didn’t believe that the hand that they had was as strong as it needed to be,” stated Iger.
‘He didn’t have a solution, and selling was a solution because he could get, at that time, a good piece for it.’
Iger also spoke about his talks with James Murodch prior to the sale, and revealed that he did not at any point offer James a job or imply that there was a role for him in the new company.
This despite suggestions from James himself that he might have been in the running for CEO had he not removed his name from the process.
‘James and I did talk. We have a very nice relationship, and he was quite helpful in the integration process,’ said Iger.
‘We talked very early on about whether there was a role or not for him at Disney. And in the end, I couldn’t come up with a role that he was particularly interested in, and I didn’t have an obligation to provide him with a role, and so quite early on we both concluded that it wasn’t going to work out and go our separate ways.’
Yeah. And?