---
title: "Buying a creative company without breaking it"
description: "How Iger approached Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, built from the three deals."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/buying-a-creative-company-without-breaking-it/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Buying a creative company without breaking it

> How Iger approached Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, built from the three deals.

Robert Iger's framework, from The Ride of a Lifetime, pp. 122 to 222.

Framework 5 of 7 from [The Ride of a Lifetime](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/index.md) by Robert Iger. Category: Lead generation.

## The steps

1. **Test the target against the priorities.** Start from the three strategic priorities and list who holds great IP.
2. **Show respect in person.** Go to the owner alone, as he did with Ike Perlmutter and John Lasseter, and let them lead where the owner is sensitive, as with George Lucas.
3. **Learn the culture before bidding.** Visit and meet the creative leaders to see what makes the place work.
4. **Promise to protect the culture, in writing.** Pixar's two-page social compact kept email addresses, signs and rituals.
5. **Be clear about where you stand.** Do not suggest or promise what the other side wants to hear only to reverse later.
6. **Arrive at a fair number and hold it.** Do not open low and negotiate to the middle, and be willing to walk away, as at $28 a share for Fox.
7. **Get someone trusted to vouch.** Steve Jobs's call to Ike Perlmutter helped win Marvel.
8. **Win the trust of the single controlling person.** Each deal depended on personal trust and authenticity.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: Part Two: Leading, pp. 122–222

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/buying-a-creative-company-without-breaking-it.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/buying-a-creative-company-without-breaking-it-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/buying-a-creative-company-without-breaking-it.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/the-ride-of-a-lifetime/buying-a-creative-company-without-breaking-it-dark.png