Steve Jobs was pretty instrumental in Disney buying Marvel according to Bob Iger.
The movie landscape has changed dramatically since Disney purchased Marvel in 2009. This deal will certainly go down as one of the most fruitful in entertainment history and has helped secure Disney’s dominance of the global box office.
But did you know that Steve Jobs of Apple fame played a role in securing Disney’s purchase of the company? In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Disney chairman Bob Iger revealed how it went down:
“In 2009, after our very successful acquisition of Pixar, we were interested in acquiring Marvel, so I met with Steve and walked him through the business. He claimed to have never read a comic book in his life (‘I hate them more than I hate video games,’ he told me), so I brought an encyclopedia of Marvel characters with me to explain the universe to him and show him what we would be buying. He spent about 10 seconds looking at it, then pushed it aside and said, ‘Is this one important to you? Do you really want it? Is it another Pixar?’
“When it came to the Marvel question, I told him that I wasn’t sure if it was another Pixar, but they had great talent at the company, and the content was so rich that if we held the IP, it would put some real distance between us and everyone else. I asked him if he’d be willing to reach out to Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s CEO and controlling shareholder, and vouch for me. Later, after we’d closed the deal, Ike told me that he’d still had his doubts and the call from Steve made a big difference. ‘He said you were true to your word,’ Ike said. I was grateful that Steve was willing to do it as a friend, really, more than as the most influential member of our board. Every once in a while, I would say to him, ‘I have to ask you this, you’re our largest shareholder,’ and he would always respond, ‘You can’t think of me as that. That’s insulting. I’m just a good friend.'”
It’s certainly a fascinating part of movie history! What would the cinematic landscape have been like if Jobs hadn’t made that call? It’s intriguing to think about!
