Disney is showing its teeth in the latest development of a very public proxy battle.
©Disney
Trian Partners, Nelson Peltz, and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo are currently in a proxy battle with Disney over two seats on the Walt Disney Company’s Board of Directors. After Peltz and company publicly attacked current Disney CEO Bob Iger in a recent 133-page memo, Disney is firing back with its boldest denunciation of Peltz and Rasulo yet.
Disney didn’t hold back when its shareholder campaign site, Vote Disney, released a video on Monday that took direct shots at Trian Partners’ campaign to win the two board seats.
©Getty Images
The video targeted Peltz’s rocky involvement history with companies like GE and DuPont and labeled him as the “ultimate detriment to shareholder value.” The video also alleged Peltz’s incentive as an activist investor is purely “about vanity more than belief in Disney.” Also featured in the video was a clip of Peltz admitting to having no media experience.
©Disney
As for Rasulo, the shareholder campaign took an even more personal approach, noting that Rasulo (who was Disney’s CFO from 2010 to 2015) has ill intentions as someone who was passed over for promotion and “tanked” the stock while on the board of iHeartMedia.
Additionally, the campaign called into question Trian’s teaming up with Ike Perlmutter of Marvel Entertainment, who was laid off in March 2023. The video insinuated Perlmutter is a “former disgruntled employee” who exhibited “destructive behavior” while working for Disney.
©Marvel
The site also posted letters from Walt and Roy O. Disney’s grandchildren criticizing Trian Partners while supporting Iger and the board’s current direction.
©Disney
Trian Partners is urging Disney investors to vote in Peltz and Rasulo at the company’s April 3rd, 2024 annual shareholders meeting. This video by Vote Disney takes a political campaign approach in an effort to derail Trian’s efforts while boasting Disney’s first fiscal quarter of 2024, future projections, investments in theatrical, streaming, and gaming media, the Disney Crusie Line, and its theme parks.
TrianPartners maintains that Disney would not be proactive without a proxy contest, while Iger refutes that this proxy fight is merely a distraction.
©New York Times Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners
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Peltz doesn’t have to create a video. All he has to do is put out the ones Disney themselves got caught with: Americans too fat – cut portions and raise prices; squeezing in an agenda wherever they can, etc.