He looked at James objectively vis a vis the deal, Disney insiders said, not with a father’s protective instinct. “James was nothing but a gentleman in the whole process,” Bob Iger, the chairman of Disney, told me. News reports at the time suggested James harbored a fantasy about succeeding Mr. Iger, and the two talked about a possible role. But, James told me, “I decided pretty soon after we closed it that I didn’t want to stay on in the business. James Murdoch can do X, Y and Z.’ And your ego goes, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ But then, you have to sit back and go, ‘That’s not me defining that.

Source: New York Times October 10, 2020 09:00 UTC