Disney CEO joins Apple board

Disney CEO Bob Iger now has a seat on the Apple board of directors, the iPhone maker has announced.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Disney boss “is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board”.

Both Apple and Disney have commercial interests in games, though the latter appears to have contracted its investment in the sector.

Last year Disney spent an initial $563 million to acquire social games group Playdom, before making sweeping cuts across its Interactive division. The company went on to close its Brighton studio Black Rock, as well as North American outfit Propaganda Games, all amid rumours of hundreds of redundancies.

Cook said Iger’s strategic vision for Disney “is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple”.

Apple’s board also includes Cook and former Vice President Al Gore. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt left the board in 2009.

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Apple has also named Arthur Levinson as non-executive chairman of the board, filling former CEO Steve Jobs’s role.