Disney Has “Killed A Few Projects” Amid Studio Overhaul, Says Bob Iger; “We’ve Not Been That Public About It”

Nelson Peltz said today that his bitter proxy fight with Disney is “not about Mr. Iger, nor is it a referendum about his leadership” even as CNBC reported that his firm, Trian Partners, has withheld votes from the CEO, who is also a board nominee.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor UPDATED: Nelson Peltz claims Disney‘s board, not CEO Bob Iger, is the problem. But his investment firm, Trian Group, withheld its votes for Iger’s reelection to the Disney board. With just over a week before Disney’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3, Peltz’s Trian — which has been aggressively campaigning to get two seats on the Mouse House’s board — issued a new statement Monday saying the battle is not about any dispute with Iger but rather about forcing change on the board’s composition to boost the company’s financial returns.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO who exited the company in 2005, is the latest member of the extended Disneyverse to weigh in with support for current chief exec Bob Iger, who’s facing a proxy fight with activist investors including Nelson Peltz in a vote for board candidates at Disney’s April 3 annual shareholders meeting. “[I]n 1983, Disney was under attack by corporate raiders trying to take over the company,” Eisner wrote in a post on X, referring to the unsuccessful attempt by financier Saul Steinberg to stage a hostile takeover of the company.

(Updated with  Laurene Powell Jobs statement) The fight for the future of the Walt Disney Company got very fast and furious this morning.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney was handed a setback in its boardroom fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz after proxy-advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders vote him onto the Mouse House’s board. ISS, whose recommendations are influential among institutional investors, cited Disney’s “failed” succession planning in the CEO role in its report backing Peltz, whose Trian Partners.

George Lucas is the latest to come out in support of Disney and CEO Bob Igert as the company wages a bitter proxy fight against activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is making a run for two seats on the company’s board.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Star Wars mastermind George Lucas has come out with a statement in support of Disney‘s board and CEO Bob Iger, urging Mouse House shareholders to reject a bid by two activist investor groups to take seats on the media company’s board. “Creating magic is not for amateurs,” Lucas said in a statement released Tuesday. “When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago, I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my longtime admiration for its iconic brand and Bob Iger’s leadership.” Lucas continued, “When Bob recently returned to the company during a difficult time, I was relieved.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are making moves behind the scenes!

Alex Proyas, who directed the original version of The Crow in 1994 is not a fan of the idea remaking the film, the new version of which will be released on June 7.

Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis has recommended that Disney shareholders withhold votes for all board candidates except the company’s own.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed how much money Disney has made from Star Wars.According to the financial breakdown, the company has made approximately $12billion from the sci-fi franchise, almost three times the amount Disney bought it for ($4.05billion) in 2012.This comes on the back of the latest Star Wars trilogy – The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise Of Skywalker – as well as five Disney+ series, including The Mandalorian, The Book Of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka.Despite widespread criticism of the new films and TV shows, the franchise has still proven to be extremely profitable, with merchandise and theme park attractions largely contributing to the huge revenue.However, even with the $12billion intake, Star Wars is still not the most profitable intellectual property for Disney.

Disney’s latest salvo in a proxy fight with activist investor Trian Fund Management highlights the firm’s “silent partner” Ike Perlmutter and his “difficult history with Bob Iger.”

Disney shares were up 2% at mid-day Monday, extending their recent rally, as the company renewed its attacks on activist investor Nelson Peltz.

Following Disney chief Bob Iger’s very recent admission that the company had quietly canceled several projects that they didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the last few months amid belt-tightening and scaling back, a picture of what some of those projects might be is starting to emerge. In an in-depth piece from The Wrap about soon-to-be-former Disney executive Sean Bailey and his legacy— exiting after 15 years as the motion picture group’s president of production, a big shake-up in the company— some details of what may have already been put out to pasture are becoming more apparent.

After skidding to multi-year lows in late-2023, Disney stock has rebounded more than 20% thus far in 2024 as two activist investment firms have launched a proxy fight.

As we all know by now, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” set for July 26, is Marvel Studios only film for 2024. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley event yesterday, Disney Chief Bob Iger predicted the film will be “one of the most successful Marvel movies we’ve had in a long time.” Clearly, the hype for the film is rising.

Disney CEO Bob Iger remains committed to turning the ship around, but in doing so, admits the company has had to make some hard choices and cancel projects the studio didn’t have 100% belief in. “You have to kill things you no longer believe in, and that’s not easy in this business,” Iger said, speaking at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in San Francisco on Tuesday (via THR).

Disney CEO Bob Iger called the proxy fight being waged by two activist investors a campaign that “is, in a way, designed to distract us, to take our eye off all [that’s] necessary to do what we need to do to generate returns for shareholders.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged that the company is behind Netflix in terms of technical capabilities — and that the Mouse House is in the process of catching up. “We need to be at their level” of technical capability, in order to reduce marketing expenses and cut churn rates, Iger said about Netflix, speaking Tuesday at the 2024 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. Iger reiterated that Disney is on track to achieve profitability in the streaming business — which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — by the fiscal quarter that ends September 2024.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, which is agitating to get two seats on Disney’s board, on Monday released a lengthy white paper analyzing the Mouse House’s financial performance — and suggesting strategic fixes. The recommendations, according to Trian, are aimed at turning around Disney‘s stock performance, which has trailed most of its peers (except Warner Bros.