Walt Disney Company calls for shareholder support in upcoming board election

Feb 01, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Thursday February 1, 2024 5:37pm Et by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney Company has urged its shareholders to vote for its 12 board nominees at the upcoming Annual Meeting on April 3, 2024, and to ignore the nominees from the Trian Group and Blackwells.

In a letter to shareholders sent today, Disney emphasized its strategy, focusing on brand assets, cost reduction, and dividend reinstatement while enhancing streaming services, film studios, ESPN, and Disney's Experiences business.

Referring to the non-Disney nominees, the company said, "Your Board does not endorse either of the Trian Group's nominees (Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo) or any of Blackwells' nominees (Craig Hatkoff, Jessica Schell and Leah Solivan). We believe that the election of any of these individuals would impede leadership's ongoing execution of Disney's strategic realignment and the Board's efforts to create value for shareholders."

The letter then goes on to say that Mr. Peltz brings no media experience and has presented no strategic ideas for Disney, while Mr. Rasulo's perspective is stale, given he left Disney in 2015 and has not held any executive positions in the industry since.

The Trian Group, which owns more than $3 billion of shares of The Walt Disney Company, is urging Disney shareholders to withhold votes for board members, Mr. Froman and Ms. Lagomasino. They argue that Froman's experience outside of Disney, mainly in government and finance, is largely irrelevant to the company's business, and he possesses only one skill central to Disney's strategy. Similarly, they contend that Lagomasino's background in wealth management is unrelated to Disney's core business. Trian also criticizes Lagomasino for misaligned compensation practices, including a significant package for Mr. Iger and a 2023 compensation program they believe does not align with Disney's performance. Furthermore, both nominees are part of the Governance and Nominating Committee, which Trian accuses of poor corporate governance and succession issues.

You can read the full letter to Disney shareholders here.

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BrianLo18 days ago

Not at all. Comcast wanted Fox and Disney wanted Sky. They both lost something, but Roberts only got the stinker and Dis was bid up unnecessarily. The only one who truly came out on top was Murdoch. Unless I’m misunderstanding you and you think Comcast didn’t want Fox?

Lilofan18 days ago

Not too shabby Iger and his wife bought the Angel soccer team for $250M.

monothingie18 days ago

You're incorrectly assuming that the Fox/Disney was not serious about pursuing the remainder of Sky. "Another source told CNBC that Comcast executives thought there was a decent chance Fox was simply bluffing and didn’t actually want Sky at all. But bidding £15.67 per share suggested Disney did, in fact, want Sky. Otherwise it would have bid much lower in Round 3, the source said." Fox/Disney wanted Sky. Yes they raised the price, but that's what a bidding war does. Unlike the Disney acquisition bidding war over Fox, Dis actually benefited from Comcast’s overpayment. Comcast has also already written down 8.6B, which is technically an admittance of having overpaid. Only the Indian sub arm of the Fox acquisition has yielded an impairment thus far for Dis and that was only 1.5B. I won’t lie that Brian Robert’s successfully intervened with probably a steal Iger had negotiated. Not probably, I know it was worth more than 54B since they’ve divested 35+ and Hulu is worth at least 8.9… but Roberts was the far bigger loser in the matter thus far… Hindsight and such makes it very easy to look back and tell people what they should have done almost a decade earlier.

Nevermore52518 days ago

Yeah the content spend for D+ is much better with what their current revenue is. They still have high SG&A costs for streaming.

BrianLo18 days ago

This is also incorrect. Sky’s value was bid up 14.75B by a back and forth between Fox, Comcast and Disney. The Fox acquisition was technically 18.9B bid up. The original Sky agreement was for Fox to acquire the remainder of the shares at £10.75 per share. When all was said and done Comcast had bid up to £17.72; and was buying the whole thing, it wasn’t already sitting on Fox’s portion since it lost the other bidding war. Unlike the Disney acquisition bidding war over Fox, Dis actually benefited from Comcast’s overpayment. Comcast has also already written down 8.6B, which is technically an admittance of having overpaid. Only the Indian sub arm of the Fox acquisition has yielded an impairment thus far for Dis and that was only 1.5B. I won’t lie that Brian Robert’s successfully intervened with probably a steal Iger had negotiated. Not probably, I know it was worth more than 52.4B since they’ve divested 35+ and Hulu is worth at least 8.9… but Roberts was the far bigger loser in the matter thus far…

flynnibus18 days ago

More significantly- they are delivering on the promised turnarounds - like reduced d+ spending and the return of the dividend. I assume the d+ margin is on track too (didn’t see news yet)

Nevermore52518 days ago

Last 4 Quarters of profit for the company overall was the best since 2018, so makes sense the dividend would see a bump for shareholders.

BrianLo18 days ago

I know this is a little old, but you didn’t get a response. These are the major divestures; Sky - 15 Fox Sports 10.6 YES - 3.5 Endemol - 2.2 Star - 3B Spinoff + 1.5B impairment These are the ones I can’t find numbers on; True(X), Fox Next, TeleColombia, FoxSports Mexico, A&E Europe, Argentinian FoxSports Penguins number may have been a tad generous in the assumption, but yours is too low. It’s at least 35B and change.

DCBaker18 days ago

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-walt-disney-company-declares-cash-dividend-of-1-00-per-share.985207/

HauntedPirate27 days ago

Allegedly this money is earmarked for the futbol club he and Willow bought.

Magic Crush Drop28 days ago

Not being subtle at all.

Doberge28 days ago

The interview with Good Morning America where Bob is asked if he's more Pua or Hei Hei and he answers, "I'm not sure... I'm more Maui, right? Demigod." 😏

Robbiem28 days ago

He really is turning into the corporate villain from a 70s Disney movie, he needs to meet some children trying to save their home to teach him how to enjoy life. Maybe they give him Herbie as his corporate car?