Bob Iger's Final Word: The Disney Chief Almost Bought Twitter and James Bond — and Nearly Merged With Apple

Bob Iger, who recently stepped down as CEO of Disney, gave Financial Times his exit interview — and it turned out to be surprisingly candid. Iger spoke about several major deals that could have reshaped the media industry but never came to be: a failed bid for James Bond, Twitter nearly signed away, and merger talks with Apple.

After Disney acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion, the company drew up a list of the next targets. On it were Marvel, Star Wars, and James Bond. "We just wanted to buy them all," Iger admitted. Marvel and Lucasfilm eventually went to Disney, but the rights to Agent 007 proved out of reach — the franchise ultimately ended up with Amazon.

The Twitter story turned out to be even sharper. According to Iger, the company was hours away from closing a deal with Jack Dorsey at "a very attractive price" — the plan was to turn the social network into a global distribution platform for Disney content. But on the morning of signing, Iger got cold feet, deciding the acquisition would be "a horrible distraction" from the core business. Twitter was later bought by Elon Musk, who renamed it X.

The most sweeping of the deals that never happened was a potential merger with Apple. Iger described it as something that could have been "truly transformational and equal" for both companies.

Iger stepped down as Disney CEO in March 2026, handing the company over to Josh D'Amaro, though he remains on the board of directors through the end of the year.

Which would have been worse — Disney owning James Bond, or Disney merging with Apple? Let us know in the comments.