Victory for Disney: Shareholders back Iger and board against Peltz challenge

Apr 03, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Wednesday April 3, 2024 1:23pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney Co. has successfully gathered sufficient votes from shareholders to overcome an opposition led by Trian Fund Management's Nelson Peltz against its board of directors.

The vote count announced at today's shareholder meeting put Disney's board members ahead "by a substantial margin" of the challenge posed by Peltz and Jay Rasulo, a former CFO of Disney. Additionally, Blackwells Capital's attempt to nominate three candidates for Disney's board did not succeed.

Bob Iger at Walt Disney World

Shareholders voted to elect all 12 nominees recommended by the Disney Board: Mary T. Barra, Safra A. Catz, Amy L. Chang, D. Jeremy Darroch, Carolyn N. Everson, Michael B.G. Froman, James P. Gorman, Robert A. Iger, Maria Elena Lagomasino, Calvin R. McDonald, Mark G. Parker, and Derica W. Rice.

“We are immensely grateful to our shareholders for their investment in Disney and their belief in its future, particularly during this period of great change in the broader entertainment industry. We are fortunate to have a highly qualified Board of Directors who possess a profound commitment to the enduring strength of this company and an enormous amount of experience and expertise, including succession planning. I’m thankful for Bob and his exceptional management team, as well as Disney’s employees and Cast Members around the world, for continuing to deliver for consumers and shareholders throughout this distracting proxy battle,” said Mark Parker, Chairman of the Board, The Walt Disney Company.

“I want to thank our shareholders for their trust and confidence in our Board and management. With the distracting proxy contest now behind us, we’re eager to focus 100% of our attention on our most important priorities: growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers,” said Bob Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company.

Disney has made several strategic moves in recent months to regain investor confidence. These include a major investment in Epic Games, the creator of "Fortnite," plans to introduce an ESPN streaming service by 2025, and the addition of two new board members.

Trian and Blackwells have criticized Disney for what they perceive as failures in succession planning, a loss of creative momentum, and inadequacies in leveraging new technologies. Bob Iger, who returned from retirement in 2022 to lead Disney again, has been focusing on revitalizing the company's iconic franchises, making the streaming service profitable, and exploring partnerships for ESPN's digital expansion.

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BrianLo21 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?

Lilofan21 days ago

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

monothingie21 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.

Nevermore52521 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.

BrianLo21 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…

flynnibus21 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)

Nevermore52521 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.

BrianLo21 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.

DCBaker21 days ago

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

HauntedPirate30 days ago

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

Magic Crush Drop31 days ago

Not being subtle at all.

Doberge31 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." 😏

Robbiem31 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?