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A new report from CNBC has revealed that more than a dozen past and present Disney executives believe that current CEO Bob Iger is trying to stay with the company long enough to facilitate a sale to Apple.
According to the report, Iger — who returned as CEO of the behemoth media multi-conglomerate in late 2022 following the disastrous stewardship of his supposed successor Bob Chapek — is angling to sell the company to Apple, which is the most valuable company in the world with a market cap of $2.75 trillion. For comparison, Disney has a market cap of $148.17 Billion.
As CNBC states, however, it’s unclear if A) regulators would allow such a merger between the two powerhouse companies, and B) if Apple even has any interest in acquiring Disney. Apple recently got into the original content game themselves, having launched the streaming service AppleTV+ back in 2019.
“More than a dozen past and present Disney executives said privately they believe Iger’s desired end game is to stay as CEO for as long as possible and then sell the company to Apple — Iger’s ties to the tech giant date back to his close personal relationship with co-founder Steve Jobs,” CNBC reports.
“But it’s less clear that regulators would allow a deal — or that Apple, which has never acquired any company of significance, would even want to buy Disney.”
Prior to his brief and generally shambolic retirement, Iger served as the CEO of Disney in 2005 until 2020.
After the board decided to fire Chapek, Iger took over as CEO on a temporary basis that was meant to last two years. In July, however, Disney and Iger agreed to extend his contract through 2026.