Disney Notches Win Against Nelson Peltz As Influential Proxy Advisory Firm Backs Company’s Board

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Some subscribers to Disney‘s streaming services will start seeing some new messaging up this summer: Pay up for anyone outside your main household who’s illicitly piggybacking on the services — or face potentially getting disconnected. According to Disney chief Bob Iger, the Mouse House this June will “be launching our first real foray into password sharing” enforcement.

One day after Bob Iger faced questions about Disney‘s competitive position vs. Universal in the Orlando theme park game, there came more information today about a significant expansion of Walt Disney World.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Trian Partners founder Nelson Peltz has accepted defeat — for now. Peltz, a day after the activist investor lost a costly proxy battle with Disney, went on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Thursday to discuss what happened. “The shareholders have voted.

It had all the elements of a good action movie – jeopardy, revenge, a mega budget – with even some casualties thrown in (albeit corporate).

Activist investor Nelson Peltz, reflecting on his losing proxy battle with Disney, says he will “watch and wait” to see if the company keeps its promises.

Disney investors backed Iger and other company directors, defeating a campaign by activist investors including Nelson Peltz who argued that Disney had underperformed in the streaming-television era.“The proxy vote was a decisive, true endorsement of the board,” he said, playing down criticisms of the activist investors and saying that the company was focused on succession – one of the major tasks facing the board of Disney.Asked about criticism from billionaire Elon Musk, who had backed Peltz in the proxy battle, Iger said: “I ignore it.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A day after Disney declared victory over activist investor Nelson Peltz, CEO Bob Iger said the board is proceeding with “urgency” in trying to identify the next chief executive with the “distraction” of the proxy fight over. “This was decisive in terms of how shareholders voted,” Iger said in an appearance Thursday morning on CNBC from Disney’s Burbank, Calif., headquarters, about the results of the April 3 meeting. Succession “is the board’s No.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor In the end, Bob Iger didn’t have to break a sweat to fend off Nelson Peltz. No question, Disney did have to spend tens of millions of dollars to fight the proxy battle with the activist investor, which came to a head on Wednesday with the Mouse House’s annual shareholders meeting.

After Disney declared victory in its proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz, CEO Bob Iger went on a theme-park offensive during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Scoring a big and costly win Wednesday against Nelson Peltz’s second attempt to get on the Disney board, Bob Iger was both gracious and a little biting in victory.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s official: Disney shareholders shot down activist investor Nelson Peltz‘s effort to win seats on the Mouse House’s board of directors. Investors voted to reelect all 12 of the company-backed board members, including CEO Bob Iger, ending the most expensive corporate proxy fight in history.

Disney has succeeded in barring Nelson Peltz from its board of directors as shareholders at the company’s hotly anticipated annual meeting today voted for the company’s slate of 12 nominees. It was a months-long bitter and costly fight.

Elon Musk is backing Nelson Peltz in the proxy battle for the future of Disney.

The minutes are ticking down to the close of Disney’s bitter proxy fight with Nelson Peltz, whose attempt to scale the board is a direct challenge to CEO Bob Iger.

Elon Musk made an April Fools’ joke yesterday that he had accepted a job at Disney to help make their content “more woke”.The Tesla CEO took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he also owns, to make the spoof announcement.“Excited to join @Disney as their Chief DEI Officer,” he wrote. “Can’t wait to work with Bob Iger & Kathleen Kennedy to make their content MORE woke! Even the linguini.”Excited to join @Disney as their Chief DEI Officer.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney and CEO Bob Iger have pulled into the lead for their 12 board candidates to win reelection — with activist investor Nelson Peltz trailing — with more than half of shareholder votes cast ahead of the Mouse House’s April 3 annual meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. Two of Disney’s institutional investors — BlackRock (which owns about 4.2% of outstanding shares) and T. Rowe Price (0.5%) — support the company’s own slate of directors, which include Iger, per the Journal, citing anonymous sources.

Disney may have nudged Nelson Peltz farther from its board as giant BlackRock is said to be backing the company’s slate of directors. The firm is Disney’s second-largest shareholder at about 4.2%.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Usually, shareholder votes for corporate board directors have all the suspense of a Soviet-style election. Most of the time, director candidates are backed by the company, and they run unopposed — winning election or reelection in a landslide. In 2022, only 75 board-endorsed candidates at companies in the Russell 3000, less than 0.5% of almost 17,500 board members on the ballot that year, failed to get elected by shareholders, per an analysis by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (which also noted that, while small, the number had dramatically risen vs.

Around 100 hours before the deadline for all Disney shareholders to cast their ballots in the acrid board clash between the Mouse House and activist investor Nelson Peltz, one of the country’s top pension funds just rolled its cannons onto the battlefield.

A Governor Ron DeSantis-selected special district board the oversees The Walt Disney Co.‘s Florida theme park properties has settled its litigation with the company today.