The results of the Disney equity proxy battle are out. Activist investor and "barbarian" Nelson Peltz lost, and Disney CEO Bob Iger won the support of the majority of shareholders.
At the annual meeting of shareholders on Wednesday, April 3, ET, shareholders elected all candidates to Disney’s board of directors, but did not accept the director nomination of Peltz and his ally, former Disney Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jay Rasulo, while rejecting Nominated a director of Disney shareholder Blackwells Capital LLC, which has a different stance from Iger.
Disney announced that preliminary results showed that its original 12 directors won the support of shareholders "by a large margin." After the completion of the
director voting election, Disney's stock price expanded its intraday decline on Wednesday, falling by more than 3% at midday.
Some media learned that Iger won 94% of the shareholder votes, while Peltz only received 31% of the votes. Director Maria Elena Lagomasino, who competed with Peltz for the director's seat, received 63% of the votes. Retail investors, who represent more than one-third of Disney shareholders, were instrumental in Iger's victory. About 75% of retail investors voted in support of the original board candidates. Trian Fund Management, an investment management company founded and CEO by
peltz, currently holds more than $3.5 billion worth of Disney shares. After the shareholder vote, Trian issued a statement saying that it was disappointed with the outcome of the proxy fight, but was very grateful to Disney stakeholders for their support of Trian, and was proud of the impact Trian had in refocusing the company on value creation and good governance. .
