We’re a little under a month away from Disney’s annual shareholder meeting.
On April 3rd, shareholders will have the opportunity to vote for Disney’s next Board of Directors. Currently, Disney has recommended their 12 nominees, but they are amidst a proxy battle with activist investors Nelson Peltz (of Trian Group) and Jay Rasulo (former CFO of the Walt Disney Company). While most of the battle has taken place between Disney and those two parties, a third group often gets cast into the shadows: Blackwells Capital.
Formerly, Blackwells filed their official proxy statement for the shareholders meeting, which recommended that the media giant split up its real estate into independent public real estate investment trusts. Then, cash and interests could be distributed to shareholders. Now, Blackwells has shared another way that Disney could boost shares.
According to U.S. News and World Report, Blackwells is suggesting that Disney come up with an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. They stated that doing so could “lift the U.S. media and entertainment conglomerate’s stock price by as much as 129%.”
In a presentation given on Monday, February 26th, Blackwells said, “Disney must produce an artificial intelligence strategy, and share elements of that strategy with its shareholders.”
Blackwells didn’t acknowledge Disney’s investment in new technologies or the fact that Disney is already viewed as a global leader in innovative entertainment. Just last year, Disney formed an AI Task Force to study AI and strategize how it could be used across the company — from media to in-park entertainment.
Further, this suggestion follows the first quarterly earnings call of fiscal 2024, where Disney announced a partnership with Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite. This $1.5 billion investment will bring a never-before-seen gaming experience to Fortnite, and Disney CEO Bob Iger alluded to a metaverse world where entertainment, shopping, and even gameplay would be possible.
The partnership announcement proceeds Disney’s partnership with the all-new Apple Vision Pro virtual reality experience, as well as Disney’s Holo Tile — a virtual reality “treadmill” experience. Disney describes the Holo Tile floor technology as the “world’s first multi-person, omni-directional, modular, expandable, treadmill floor.” This could be combined with another sort of virtual reality experience (like Apple Vision Pro) to make the user really feel like they’re part of a different universe.
So, a lot of Disney fans are scratching their heads at Blackwells’ suggestion that Disney isn’t ALREADY in the works of bringing AI and further innovation to the parks. Now, that’s not to totally disregard the second part of Blackwells’ suggestion: that Disney SHARE the AI strategy with shareholders. It’s safe to say that yes, Disney’s shares WOULD likely be boosted if they shared with the public a solidified strategy that demonstrated how AI would be implemented into the parks and film production. We’ll just have to tune in to the April 3rd shareholders meeting to see how things play out.
We’ll keep you updated with any and all Disney news, so make sure to follow along so that you never miss a thing.
David Vota says
Please. This stock has killed me since 1994. 2001, it takes a dump. Since then, the stock has gone nowhere. Parks are packed. Movies, for the most part do well and the stock takes a huge dump. Where does the money go? They shoulda never bought ESPN-MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL and should have left Pixar separate. That stock was as good as Apple back then.