Credit: Inside the MagicThe Walt Disney Company has taken off the Mickey Mouse gloves and outright accused the former chairman of Marvel of masterminding the ongoing heated proxy battle in a quest for petty revenge against Bob Iger.
For the second time in just over a year, Disney finds itself in a proxy battle, essentially a power struggle between different factions of corporate shareholders attempting to seize control of the company. And again, for the second time, billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz and his investment firm, Trian Partners, are attempting to seize control of the board of directors and derail CEO Bob Iger’s future plans.
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Although Nelson Peltz’s attempt to gain board seats and control of Disney failed last year, he has a much better chance of succeeding when shareholders go to a vote on April 4. There are a number of reasons for that, including another investment firm, Blackwells Capital, potentially splitting the vote of Disney stock, particularly after it recently unloaded a bombshell expose of one of Bob Iger’s biggest supporters.
Another reason: Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, the former chairman of Marvel Entertainment.
Like Nelson Peltz, Ike Perlmutter is a billionaire investor. However, unlike the Trian co-founder, the former Marvel boss largely shuns the spotlight and is rarely ever photographed in public, making him a bizarrely mysterious, highly politically connected figure. He only recently gave his first-ever interview, in which he angrily told the Wall Street Journal that, contrary to Disney’s claims of corporate restructuring, he had been fired by the company.
Ike Perlmutter was a member of the Marvel Comics board of directors since 1993 and later, alongside Avi Arad, managed to cut out fellow executives Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman to form Marvel Enterprises, later renamed Marvel Entertainment. After the Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel, Perlmutter initially oversaw the vastly lucrative Marvel Studios until he was forcibly demoted (reportedly due to frustrations from Kevin Feige) and later laid off.
As part of his compensation package, Perlmutter reportedly received a staggering $600 million worth of Disney stock and claims to have acquired more since then. This makes him one of the single largest shareholders of the company and, obviously, a hugely important factor in the proxy battle. Perlmutter has openly supported Trian Partner’s nomination of Nelson Peltz and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo for the board of directors. While Disney has already called out the nominees, it has largely been silent about its former Marvel boss.
Not anymore. As part of its increasingly scorched earth campaign to sway shareholders against Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo, Disney has released a new presentation titled “Correcting Trian’s Fiction With Facts,” and it takes Ike Perlmutter to task.
The Disney presentation describes the former Marvel boss as “a disgruntled former Disney employee and Trian’s ‘silent partner'” and goes on to accuse the investment firm of deliberately downplaying the extent of his involvement in their effort to take over the company. It also claims that Perlmutter is essentially the mastermind and true power behind the proxy battle, stating that he “owns ~79% of the shares Peltz claims to own.”
Disney goes even further and aggressively states that Ike Perlmutter is throwing the entire company (and the value of Disney stock) into chaos because of a grudge against CEO Bob Iger. According to the presentation, “Perlmutter’s fraught history with Bob Iger” is the main reason for his alliance with Trian rather than shareholder interests, as Peltz’s Restore the Magic campaign claims.
It goes on, asserting that “Trian neglected to address Perlmutter’s well-chronicled, difficult history with Bob Iger and many Disney employees, which is a highly relevant consideration for shareholders…[and] has said little about the role and influence of Perlmutter — it is not credible that Perlmutter is truly just sitting on the sidelines.”
Related: Walt Disney’s Heirs Support Bob Iger as Billionaire Tries To Oust Him
As though that were not enough, Disney ends this particular section of the presentation (which goes on to claim numerous inaccuracies in Trian’s narrative) by saying that “Peltz’s slate, including his silent partner Ike Perlmutter, would harm Disney, jeopardize our strategic transformation, and create maximum disruption in the boardroom.”
Needless to say, this is one of the harshest attacks from Disney in the proxy fight yet. While the Mouse has previously described Peltz and Rasulo as out of touch and lacking the necessary experience to lead the company, it has not yet gone so far as to actually claim that this entire corporate battle is due to a petty grudge from the former chief of Marvel. There is less than a month until the shareholder vote, and things are probably just going to get even bigger from here.
The full “Correcting Trian’s Fiction With Facts” presentation can be read here:
Inside the Magic reached out to Disney and Trian for comment, but has not heard back by the time of publishing.
Do you think that Mr. Perlmutter is disrupting the company to take revenge for his firing? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!