In a podcast interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner reflected on his tenure and said he regrets acquiring Miramax due to the bad behavior of its co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
“I think I would not make a deal – because I got a good cheap deal at $70 million to buy Miramax – if I’d thought that I’m bringing a wolf into the hen house,” Eisner said.
Disney sold the film company in 2010 for $660 million after a 17-year run of owning the studio. Eisner, who was CEO of the company from 1984 to 2005, went on to claim that he was the only person at Disney who would work with Weinstein.
“He was just a pig. He was rude, but he was a closet intellectual. He looked like a truck driver. He acted like a truck driver. He had great independent film taste and nobody at Disney would deal with him but me,” he told Bensinger.
As part of the wide-ranging interview, which took place in November, Eisner also weighed in on Disney CEO succession. Since the interview, Josh D’Amaro, chair of the company’s experiences division, has been named as Bob Iger’s successor.
“I think the company’s in great shape. I think Bob has been an excellent CEO. I am happy that he was the person that I recommended – that I got it through the board. He was not the board’s first choice in the beginning. He ended up being a unanimous choice. He came out of ABC, he was the president under me for a decade,” Eisner said.
“Most of the time, succession doesn’t go well … The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. So, going to the outside is dangerous. If you have people in the inside that are capable, that’s a better way to go,” he said in November, ahead of the new CEO pick.