Hires Disney executive
Apple is looking to cast itself as a Mickey Mouse outfit after hiring Walt Disney chief executive Bob Iger to its board to push its multi-media plans.
Iger is supposed to use the expertise he gained working for Disney's to take on Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc over content and its distribution. He might also be asked to sort out Apple's television plans. He will have to move fast. Google is expected to announce this week an online music service similar to iTunes. Many investors think Apple will launch a full-fledged assault on TV, although the content industry is very hostile given what Jobs did to the music industry over iTunes.
Jobs was himself a director at Disney, whose corporate empire encompasses TV network ABC, sports cable channel ESPN, movie studios and theme parks and resorts. He and Iger were quite close after Disney bought Pixar, which Jobs took over in 1986, for about $7.4 billion in 2006.
Nick Farell
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