Disney’s Bob Iger recently revealed in an interview why he decided to back out of a potential acquisition of Twitter in 2016 and we can’t say we’re super shocked by this revelation.
In an interview at the Code Conference, Iger, former CEO of the Walt Disney Company, went into detail outlining why he decided to back out of a potential acquisition of Twitter in 2016. Reportedly, at this time Disney was looking for a distribution platform to get into streaming and Twitter seemed like a great fit. Although, the level of “nastiness” on Twitter did not mesh well with the company’s squeaky-clean brand.
“Interestingly enough, because I read the news these days, we did look very carefully at all of the Twitter users—I guess they’re called users?—and we at that point estimated with some of Twitter’s help that a substantial portion, not a majority, were not real,” Iger explained. “I don’t remember the number, but we discounted the value heavily. But that was built into our economics. Actually, the deal that we had was pretty cheap.”
Gizmodo reached out to Musk’s lawyers about Iger’s comments but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Musk, meanwhile, ever the active Twitter user, did respond to a tweet about the former Disney CEO’s remarks late Wednesday.
“Interesting …” he tweeted.
If you don’t remember, Elon Musk recently was in talks to purchase Twitter. However, the billionaire decided to pull out of the deal.
Iger’s comments are no doubt welcome news to Musk and his team, who are claiming that Twitter lied about how many bots are on its platform in an attempt to wiggle out of the deal. While Twitter states that less than 5% of its monthly active users are fake or spam accounts, Musk claims that the number is significantly higher. The two parties are fighting over the future of the acquisition deal in Delaware’s Chancery Court and are scheduled to go to trial in October.
What are your thoughts on the reason why Disney’s former CEO Bob Iger decided not to acquire Twitter? Let us know in the comments!
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