It didn’t take long for Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger to run through a list of memories he had of the late Steve Jobs during a Hollywood Radio and Television society panel this week. At the event, which was hosted by Brian Grazer, Iger elaborated on his working relationship with the co-founder of Apple and how the two came together to create one of the most unbelievable partnerships in animated cinema.
“To his credit, he said, ‘Okay. I think you’re just more of the same…’” Iger explained about his response to a request for a meeting way back in 2006. He further explained that when he was made CEO of the Walt Disney Company one of his first goals was to “salvage” the relationship between Disney and Apple–who under previous CEO Michael Eisner had completely fallen apart.
Iger also added that Jobs was not afraid to tell it how it was, or at least how he perceived how things were. He would be relentlessly honest and candid, even if it meant calling Iger on a Saturday to let him know how displeased he was after seeing a Disney movie the night before. Iger was candid in return, going on to say that he told Jobs Disney needed to acquire Pixar to improve his companies animated films.
Since then Iger has lead Disney to purchase two more media companies, both seemingly as large if not larger than Pixar–Marvel and Lucasfilm–the latter of which Disney bought for a lot less than any analyst would have predicted. Disney is set to launch a new Star Wars trilogy in 2015.
