Former Disney CEO Bob Iger discusses the Lucasfilm acquisition, among others, in a two-part interview on the Masters of Scale podcast hosted by Reid Hoffman.
• Pixar’s acquisition laid the groundwork for how future acquisitions would be done at the company. Iger, Kevin Mayer (Head of Strategy), and Tom Staggs (CFO) put together a target list with companies they wanted with Marvel and Lucasfilm as their top two.
• For Lucasfilm, Iger met with George Lucas at a ribbon-cutting at Walt Disney World Resort, where he asked him about the future of Lucasfilm and George said if he ever sold to anyone, it would be Disney. It took six months before Geroge called him about the sale he was now interested in doing.
• Iger felt the sense of tension in Lucas and wanted to make sure he respected the Star Wars franchise.
• Iger on the acquisitions: “I learned over time that even though the press and the street kind of put our names together, Marvel, a division of Disney, the consumer looks at Marvel as Marvel, and Disney as Disney, and Pixar as Pixar, and Star Wars as Star Wars. And we manage them well when we bring them to market.”
It is well worth a listen.
