{"id":2801,"date":"2026-06-23T21:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:06:58","slug":"disney-failed-to-buy-james-bond-franchise-walked-away-from-owning-twitter-hours-before-the-deal-closed-and-held-apple-merger-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2801","title":{"rendered":"Disney Failed to Buy James Bond Franchise, Walked Away From Owning Twitter Hours Before the Deal Closed and Held Apple Merger Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nBob Iger, who stepped down from his second stint as Disney CEO in March, gave an exit interview to Financial Times in which he revealed that he tried to acquire the James Bond franchise for Disney amid a spending spree that included the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and \u201cStar Wars.\u201d Pixar was priority number one for Iger, and the studio \u201cfelt unstoppable\u201d when it acquired Pixar in May 2006 for $7.4 billion.<\/p>\n

Read more Clive Davis Never Played a Note, but He Forever Changed the Music Industry: An Appreciation<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was like the clouds lifted and the sun started to shine again,\u201d Iger said. \u201cWe put together a list of acquisition targets. Marvel was one, \u2018Star Wars\u2019 was another, James Bond was one. We had a list and I figured let\u2019s just tick them off and buy them all.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tJames Bond is the franchise that got away (Amazon is its current owner). Other companies did, too. Iger told FT that he was close to buying Twitter from owner Jack Dorsey \u201cat a very attractive price.\u201d The plan was to turn Twitter into a global distribution platform for Disney, but Iger admitted he got cold feet on the morning of the deal and worried it would be \u201ca horrible distraction.\u201d Elon Musk ended up buying Twitter and transforming it into X.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney also flirted with an Apple merger. Iger first revealed in his 2019 memoir that he believed the two companies would\u2019ve combined or \u201cat least discussed the possibility\u201d of merging \u201cvery seriously\u201d if Steve Jobs \u201cwere still alive.\u201d But now Iger revealed that \u201csome conversations\u201d did actually take place between Apple and Disney about a merger that Iger thinks would have been \u201ctruly transformational and equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cWe talked about it internally, and we had some conversations with Apple about it, but it never went anywhere,\u201d Iger said. Apple didn\u2019t show that much interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIger stepped down as Disney CEO in March and was succeeded by Josh D\u2019Amaro. News broke in April that Iger had taken a role as an adviser to venture-capital firm\u00a0Thrive Capital. The New York-based company was founded in 2009 by Josh Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, who is Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law. In September 2022, Iger joined Thrive Capital as a venture partner.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018I Will Find You\u2019 Nabs 24 Million Views in 4 Days, Netflix\u2019s Biggest New Series Debut of 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disney failed to buy the James Bond franchise and walked away from purchasing Twitter just hours before a deal was expected to close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[364,2084,1836,852],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-apple","tag-bob-iger","tag-disney-4","tag-james-bond"],"yoast_head":"\nDisney Failed to Buy James Bond Franchise, Walked Away From Owning Twitter Hours Before the Deal Closed and Held Apple Merger Talks - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2801\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disney Failed to Buy James Bond Franchise, Walked Away From Owning Twitter Hours Before the Deal Closed and Held Apple Merger Talks - 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