Before his death in 2011, Steve Jobs was the largest shareholder in Disney, and that was because Disney had bought his company, Pixar, in 2006. However, before Disney bought Pixar, things between Steve Jobs and the former were not so rosy.
Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger had a very good relationship, but at first Jobs wasn't afraid to drop a personal bombshell of cruelty on Disney. He would call Bob Iger even on Saturdays to tell him that his movies were crap.
The reason for Jobs's disdain for Disney stemmed from negotiations he had with Iger's predecessor, Michael Esner. The two had a feud over the deal because Jobs was trying to get a better deal. The relationship between Disney and Pixar quickly soured, leading the two companies to call off talks.
As soon as Iger took over in 2006, one of the first things he did was call Steve Jobs and see if the relationship between the two companies could be salvaged.
In a recent interview, Iger said that Jobs was incredibly honest and straightforward in their discussions, to the point that Jobs would call Iger on Saturday and tell him if the Disney movie he saw last night was crap.
But this honesty and directness helped the relationship between the two companies and saved Disney a few thousand dollars when it bought Pixar in 2006 for 7.4 billion.
Bob Iger is currently on the Board of Directors of Apple and in his interview he said that he learned a lot from working with Steve Jobs. And although Jobs said in his biography by Walter Isaacson that he was impressed by Iger's honesty, Iger himself never heard Jobs say it to him, but he learned it from reading the book.
