Credit: Inside The MagicIn the eleventh hour, the Walt Disney Company proved to reign supreme against its foes in what some can call the most monumental campaign yet for the House of Mouse.
Disney Stomps Out Nelson Peltz, Blackwells Capital, Proxy Vote for Board of Directors Won
As per a report from Reuters, Disney has garnered sufficient votes to repel a proxy challenge from Trian Fund Management regarding seats on the Disney Board of Directors. The official results will be announced at today’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders at 1 p.m. ET. The fate of the Disney parks, Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Entertainment, Walt Disney Pictures, and your Disney experience was hanging by a thread with this major proxy vote.
Sources familiar with the matter, cited in the report by Reuters, indicate that the votes cast thus far have positioned Disney’s nominees securely ahead of contenders from Trian and Blackwells. Although votes remain subject to potential casting and alteration, it is unlikely to alter the anticipated outcome.
A triumph in this proxy battle would pave the way for Iger and his team to proceed with their strategic initiatives, encompassing a $60 billion investment in the Experiences division, with an expected allocation of $30 billion earmarked for theme parks over the next decade. Disney has been fighting these foes for some time now, and this final death blow proves that the House of Mouse will continue to be in the hands of current Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The official vote counts for Disney’s 2024 annual shareholders meeting will be revealed during the virtual event scheduled for Wednesday, April 3, commencing at 10 a.m. PT. Eligible shareholders can vote online, by mail, or by telephone before the meeting. While shareholders can vote during the meeting, Disney has strongly encouraged them to do so by 11:59 p.m. ET on April 2.
It is important to note that sources have cautioned that some shareholders may revise their votes on Wednesday, as highlighted in the Reuters report. The speculation follows a Wall Street Journal article affirming that Disney’s board slate was leading with more than half of shareholder votes cast.
Vanguard, an index fund manager with a 7.8% stake in Disney’s outstanding shares, reportedly intends to support the nominees endorsed by Disney over those proposed by Trian, as per Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources. Furthermore, two other institutional investors in Disney, BlackRock (with approximately 4.2% ownership of outstanding shares) and T. Rowe Price (0.5%), have reportedly aligned their support with the directors backed by Disney.
Numerous reports indicated that Nelson Peltz and Blackwells Capital would somehow pull off a win against Disney and obtain innumerable seats on the Board of Directors. Had they won a few seats, Nelson Peltz looked forward to “restoring the magic” and returning Disney to its former glory days. Blackwells Capital was interested in splitting the company into three parts, quoting that Bob Iger’s position was “too complex” to handle just one person.
Both parties attempted to showcase the state of the Walt Disney Company through long, explanatory documents, revealing just how “bad” the House of Mouse has been doing with ESPN, Disney+, and even the theme parks.
But in the end, Disney rallied through and got enough votes to defeat two of its most significant and most controversial opponents yet, giving the lead on new major announcements coming this afternoon concerning more theme parks, some opening dates for various projects like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and much more.