Yahoo Finanza Former Disney Bob Iger says Pixar was his Best Acquisition
Bob Iger has been in charge of Disney for 15 years, turning it into one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. He left his role as the chief executive officer of the company last year.
Iger Proud of Pixar Acquisition
Former Walt Disney boss Bob Iger revealed in a recent interview that the acquisition of Pixar was perhaps his proudest moment as the CEO of the company. He said he stepped down as the CEO of Disney after he realized he was becoming too dismissive of other people’s opinions.
Iger said, “I’m proud of a lot of the decisions that were made. Certainly, the acquisitions — I’d say of all of them — Pixar because it was the first. And it put us on the path to achieving what I wanted to achieve, which is scale when it comes to storytelling. That was probably the best.”
The former CEO acquired Pixar two months after he was appointed as Disney’s boss in 2005. Disney bought Pixar at $7.4 billion at the time, a move that was criticized by Wall Street analysts and former company executives.
However, Pixar has generated more than $11 billion for Disney at the global box office alone over the past decade and a half. “What I wanted to do more than anything is, I wanted to send a signal to everybody at Disney that it was a new day, that we were more open-minded about expansion, in particular about partnerships. That creativity was the most important strategy for the company. And Pixar, at that point, exemplified original storytelling and quality and creativity at in its highest form.”
Pixar Helped Disney’s Animation Drive
At the time of Pixar’s acquisition, Disney’s animation sector was struggling for ideas following the success of animations such as “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and “Pocahontas.” The acquisition of Pixar helped spark ideas into the Disney animation sector, leading to broader success over the past few years.
Iger pointed out that the acquisition of Pixar and its subsequent success helped Disney to convince other brands such as Marvel that their identity would not be lost once they joined the Disney team. The former CEO was also instrumental in the deal to acquire 20th Century Fox.
This article was originally posted on FX Empire
