The Classic Iger

In The Ride of a Lifetime

[the prospect of the Marvel acquisition]

    The larger obstacle, though, was that the person who ran Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, was a mystery to us. Ike was a legendarily tough, reclusive character, former Israeli military, who never appeared in public or allowed pictures of himself to be taken. He had made a fortune by buying up the debt of distressed companies and then using it to take control of them. And he had a reputation for being penurious to the extreme. (There are stories of Ike pulling paper clips out of trash cans (makes him my hero))

....

    Ike was noticeably wary of me, but he wasn't cold or uninviting. He had a wiry frame and a powerful handshake. When I sat down he offered me a glass of water and a banana. "From Costco," he said. "My wife and I shop there on weekends." I didn't know how much David had told him about me or what I wanted to talk about, but you can't meet someone and then right after the niceties say you want to buy his company.