The Ride of a Lifetime
In one sentence: Bob Iger's 2019 memoir of his climb from ABC production assistant to two-time Disney CEO is the primary source Acquired's hosts keep returning to for the Renaissance-to-empire history and the four big acquisitions, and the wording of scenes like Roy E. Disney's resignation letter and the first call to Steve Jobs comes straight from its pages.
Overview
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company was published by Random House in 2019. It traces Iger's path from joining ABC as a junior production assistant in 1974, through the 1996 Capital Cities/ABC merger that carried him into Disney, up through the presidency and COO role, and into the CEO office in 2005 after an internal succession contest. The back half covers the fifteen years that followed: the Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox deals, and the launch of Disney+. The book carries several scenes Iger tells and retells, among them the Sunday afternoon he learned he'd gotten the CEO job and immediately called Steve Jobs, whose relationship with Disney was then at its coldest, and his own verdict on the late president Frank Wells, whom he calls the "yin to Michael's yang."
Why It's Worth Reading
Ben reads a passage straight from the book on air when covering the Save Disney campaign: the opening lines of Roy E. Disney's three-page public resignation letter to Eisner. David returns to the book repeatedly to reconstruct other scenes, including the call Iger made to Jobs right after getting the CEO news, where Jobs's reaction was almost cold: "How long have you worked for Michael? He asked. Ten years. Huh, he said. Well, I don't see how things will be any different, but sure, when the dust settles, be in touch." He also cites Iger's own read on Eisner testifying before Congress in 2002 against the tech industry's "rip, mix, burn" marketing: "It was clear that Pixar was gaining swagger as Disney was losing it. And these two strong-willed personalities were destined to battle each other for supremacy." Both hosts treat the book as Iger's own account of the whole Renaissance-to-empire arc, and lean on it hardest for the succession campaign and the Pixar acquisition.
Sourcing
The book is a primary source Acquired draws on throughout the Disney episode: the excerpt from Roy's resignation letter, the account of Iger's strategy for the CEO campaign, the verbatim call with Jobs, and the line about Eisner's Congressional testimony are all quoted directly from it.