Bob Iger says Disney talked to Apple about a merger, and Apple said no.
For years, Iger said the two companies might have merged if Steve Jobs had lived. Now he’s confirmed real talks happened, and Apple passed. Here’s the 20-year history that made it possible, including the iPod deal that started it all.
The idea of Apple buying Disney has floated around for years, usually as a fan dream or a stock-watcher’s guess. Turns out it was a real conversation. And Apple was the one who passed.
In his recent exit interview, former Disney boss Bob Iger confirmed the two companies actually talked about merging. His words: “We talked about it internally, and we had some conversations with Apple about it, but it never went anywhere.” Why not? “Apple didn’t show that much interest.”
That’s a bigger admission than it sounds, and to see why, you have to go back 20 years.
Why these two companies keep getting linked
This rumor doesn’t come from nowhere. Disney and Apple have been tangled together since 2006.
That year, Iger’s first big move as Disney CEO was buying Pixar, the animation studio, for $7.4 billion. Here’s the catch most people forget: Pixar was owned by Steve Jobs, the man who ran Apple. So when Disney bought Pixar, it paid Jobs in Disney stock, which made the Apple founder the single largest shareholder in Disney, and put him on Disney’s board.
Two of the biggest names in entertainment and tech, suddenly at the same table. Iger and Jobs became close friends. Jobs even told Iger about his cancer diagnosis before it was public. That’s how tight they got.
The deal that started the friendship
There’s a fun detail in the new interview about how Iger first won Jobs over, and it involves the iPod.
When Iger took over, his very first call with Jobs led to a quick deal to put Disney’s TV shows on the first video iPod. That small, fast handshake changed how Jobs saw the company.
“All of a sudden, I’m now someone Steve likes and respects,” Iger told the Financial Times. He said Jobs had seen the old Disney as slow and buried in bureaucracy, and this told him “this is a new day.” That little iPod deal opened the door to Pixar, and everything after.
The “if Steve had lived” line
For years, that friendship was the whole basis for the merger talk.
Jobs died in 2011. In his 2019 memoir, Iger wrote that he believed if Jobs had lived, “we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously.” He repeated it several times over the years. It was always framed as a wistful what-if, not an actual deal anyone tried to make.
Iger even kept a foot in Apple’s world after Jobs. He sat on Apple’s board of directors from 2011 until 2019, when he stepped down as Disney+ and Apple TV+ were about to launch and the two companies were becoming streaming rivals.
What’s new this time
Here’s the part that’s actually fresh.
Until now, Iger only ever said a deal might have happened in some better timeline. In this interview, he confirmed the two sides actually had conversations about it, and that Apple wasn’t interested. He even described what a merger could have been: “truly transformational and equal.”
That moves the story from “fun what-if” to “they talked, and Apple said no thanks.”
It also fits a pattern Iger’s been owning up to lately. In the same interview, he talked about Disney nearly buying Twitter, chasing the James Bond franchise, and more. He’s in full looking-back mode, and the Apple talk is the headline of the bunch.
Why Apple probably passed
It makes sense that Apple shrugged, even with a prize the size of Disney on the table.
Apple has always avoided giant takeovers. Its biggest purchase ever was Beats headphones for about $3 billion, pocket change next to Disney’s price tag, which would run well over $200 billion with the premium a deal like that takes. Apple could afford it. It just doesn’t usually play that way, preferring to build its own stuff rather than swallow a company as big as Disney.
So the two giants circled each other for two decades, linked by Pixar, by Jobs, and by a friendship between two CEOs. And the closest they got was a conversation that fizzled. Iger clearly still wonders what might have been. But the honest version, in his own words now, is simpler than the legend: Disney asked, and Apple wasn’t that into it.
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Hat Tips:
Financial Times, via The Hollywood Reporter and 9to5Mac (June 2026), verified for Iger’s “we had some conversations with Apple” and “didn’t show that much interest” quotes, the “truly transformational and equal” framing, and the iPod-deal and Jobs “new day” quotes
Variety (June 2026), verified for the $7.4 billion Pixar purchase, the acquisition-target list including James Bond, and the Twitter near-deal context
9to5Mac and The Verge, via Slashdot (June 2026), verified for Iger’s Apple board tenure from 2011 to 2019 and the Pixar/Jobs ownership history
Iger’s 2019 memoir The Ride of a Lifetime, verified for the “if Steve were still alive” merger belief