Bob Iger reckons Apple and Disney might have become one with Steve Jobs around

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Disney+ on an iPhone
Disney+ on an iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Former Disney CEO Bob Iger says a merger between the company and Apple could have happened.
  • Iger believes some sort of merger was in the cards if Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had lived longer.

Former Disney CEO Bog Iger believes that Apple and his company might have merged in some way if Steve Jobs hadn't died in 2011. However, he does also say that the prospect of a buyout was never broached with Jobs — but that doesn't mean it doesn't think it might have been a winner.

As reported by Seeking Alpha, a CNBC interview saw Iger talk about Jobs and what might have happened if a merger had been discussed. According to Iger, things would likely have "gotten there" should Jobs have been around longer.

Speaking to CNBC in an interview that aired on Tuesday, the former CEO of Disney reported that he never talked about a potential combination with Jobs, who died in 2011, but that the Apple founder appreciated the benefits of combining "great technology" with "great creativity.""I'm pretty convinced we would have had that discussion. ... I think we would have gotten there," Iger said of a potential merger, noting that Jobs became a major DIS shareholder after the Mouse House bought his Pixar animation studio in 2006.

Iger made similar comments in a book back in 2019 and Jobs was of course a member of Disney's board. Whether Apple might have one day bought Disney, we'll never know. But imagine a world where Apple TV+ included free Disney Plus content and things would be very cool indeed.

Then imagine Disney World with Apple-themed rides! I think we can all agree that the best iPhone would be an iPhone that you could ride!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.