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Elon Musk wished to purchase Twitter. Then he determined he didn’t.
Bob Iger can relate.
In 2016, Iger, then the CEO of Disney, had satisfied himself that his firm ought to personal Twitter as a result of it will be a wonderful method to distribute Disney’s content material around the globe. Then, shortly earlier than the 2016 US presidential election, he bailed out.
Iger has instructed elements of this story earlier than, nevertheless it all the time appeared complicated to me: In his 2019 memoir, he stated the boards of each Disney and Twitter had agreed to the deal, however then he had second ideas due to the “nastiness” rampant at Twitter.
Actually? Wasn’t the nastiness readily obvious to anybody who’d ever used the service for a second, not to mention to somebody who was able to spend billions on it?
However at the moment we acquired an extended model of the story, relayed by Iger on the Code Convention, in response to a query from The Verge’s Alex Heath. On this one, Iger says that Twitter would have been a “phenomenal” distribution platform for Disney however that it will have include too many complications. Amongst them: Bots. (Sound acquainted?)
Right here’s Iger, in his personal phrases:
“We have been intent on going into the streaming enterprise. We wanted a know-how answer. We now have all this nice IP. We weren’t a know-how firm. How can we get that IP to shoppers around the globe? … And we have been kicking tires left and proper. We considered creating ourselves. 5 years, $500 million. It wasn’t the cash, it was the time, as a result of the world was altering quick. And on the similar time, we heard that Twitter was considering a sale.
“We enter the method instantly, taking a look at Twitter as the answer: a international distribution platform. It was seen as form of a social community. We have been viewing it as one thing fully totally different. We may put information, sports activities, leisure, [and] attain the world. And admittedly, it will have been an exceptional answer, distribution-wise.
“Then, after we bought the entire idea to the Disney board and the Twitter board, and we’re actually able to execute — the negotiation was nearly accomplished — I went house, contemplated it for a weekend, and thought, ‘I’m not taking a look at this as fastidiously as I want to have a look at it.’ Sure, it’s an amazing answer from a distribution perspective. However it will include so many different challenges and complexities that as a supervisor of an amazing international model, I used to be not ready to tackle a significant distraction and having to handle circumstances that weren’t even near something that we had confronted earlier than.
“Apparently sufficient, as a result of I learn the information today, we did look very fastidiously at the entire Twitter customers — I assume they’re known as customers? — and we at that time estimated with a few of Twitter’s assist {that a} substantial portion — not a majority — weren’t actual.
“I don’t bear in mind the quantity however we discounted the worth closely. However that was constructed into our economics. Really, the deal that we had was fairly low cost.
“Then it’s important to look, in fact, in any respect the hate speech and potential to do as a lot hurt pretty much as good. We’re within the enterprise of producing enjoyable at Disney — of doing nothing however good, despite the fact that there are others at the moment that criticize Disney for the other, which is flawed. This was simply one thing that we weren’t able to tackle and I used to be not able to tackle because the CEO of an organization and I believed it will have been irresponsible.”
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