April 3 (UPI) — A proxy battle over who will be on Disney’s board will play out Wednesday afternoon at the company’s annual meeting.
Shareholders will vote on efforts by Trian Partners’ Nelson Peltz and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo to join the board while ousting two current members at the meeting set for 1 p.m. Wednesday. Disney will air a live webcast of the meeting.
If Peltz and Rasulo win, they would replace current Disney board members Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman. Peltz also wants Disney CEO Bob Iger to leave at the end of his current contract in 2026.
Iger and the board are fighting hard to prevent Peltz and Rasulo from winning board seats.
On a proxy campaign website, Disney said influential shareholders like Lucasfilm founder George Lucas, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner support the current board.
“The major distractions we’re facing from activist investors is exactly what we don’t need. I’m urging you to vote for the Disney board and its recommended slate of nominees on the white proxy card. And not to vote for the nominees presented by these activist hedge funds,” Iger said.
Speaking about the Disney board in a video at restorethemagic.com Peltz said the proxy challengers were aligned in their desire “fundamentally and crudely” to see stock prices increase.
“It’s time for the board to understand that big board fees and management with huge compensation owe something to us. We want to make sure that all the shareholders, not just guys like us,” he said.
Disney shares are up by 48% since Trian Partners campaign to change the board began, but Peltz has argued the company could be doing better, especially with its streaming products.
Disney is up by 36% year-to-date.
Peltz has a $3.98 billion stake in Disney, roughly 2% of company shares.
“I don’t think [Peltz has] offered a turnaround plan that would be something that would get people saying, yeah, we need to get Peltz in there and change things,” Barton Crockett, senior research analyst at Rosenblatt Securities said in a statement to CNN.
Peltz has successfully fought proxy battles in the past, but has no entertainment business experience.
