Bad news, if you are looking for hope for the Walt Disney Company. Bob Iger has probably blocked Nelson Peltz and James Rasulu from getting on the Disney Board of Directors, at least for this year.
When ValueAct threw its hat in the ring, I had said at the time that Mason Morfit was going to be backing Bob Iger’s play.
Iger has also recruited Blackwells Captial’s CIO Jason Aintabi into his camp. Take note: This is not Black Rock or Black Stone. This is yet another finance company with Black in its name.
Aintabi has a track record of being very litigious, and he came out of the corner swinging wildly at Nelson Peltz.
“Ten months ago, Mr. Peltz withdrew Trian’s unnecessary proxy fight at Disney. Mr. Peltz would now have shareholders elect him personally, along with a disgruntled former Disney employee. Neither candidate has the skillsets Trian claims the Board lacks. Rather, we believe Mr. Peltz’s latest effort is driven by animus against Mr. Iger and an ego-driven urge to claim credit for a transformation already underway.
Flip-flopping, self-interest and personal quarrels have no place in a Boardroom. Individuals seeking to gain representation on Disney’s Board must have skillsets that the Board needs as well as a demonstrable record of creating value for all stakeholders. Mr. Peltz and his coterie seem to fail that test, time and time again1.
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Trian and Mr. Peltz also appear to be grouping and jointly soliciting with Ancora Holdings Group, LLC (“Ancora”) – a firm Blackwells believes has a pattern of questionable business dealings2, including a run-in with the SEC3. Ancora is led by Fred DiSanto, who seems to have a personal agenda as well4. Disney shareholders should be concerned by the possibility of such an association, which has led us to formally request that the Disney Board investigate Trian’s relationship with Ancora and other shareholders.
Jason Aintabi, Chief Investment Officer of Blackwells, commented, “We call on Mr. Peltz to end his peacocking so that Disney can focus on its bright future, and not be dragged backward in time. Disney’s current leadership is invaluable to its shareholders, and our three exceptional candidates are being nominated along with a business proposal specifying that any incumbent director outvoted by Blackwells’ nominees be immediately added back to the Board following the 2024 Annual Meeting. This campaign provides shareholders a necessary alternative to what would otherwise be a solipsistic sideshow.”
Blackwells then called on Disney’s BOD to strike Peltz and James Rasulo from the ballot if there were any irregularities at all in their filing. Apparently inspired by blue state attempts to keep Trump off the ballot for crimes he hasn’t been convicted of.
My own guess is that Disney already found the kill shot irregularity but thought it would look a lot better if an outsider demanded Peltz’s removal from the ballot. I fully expect his removal from the ballot to come right before the shareholder meeting in April. Too late for a Trian lawsuit to do any good.
Basically, Bob Iger has rounded up every Woke billionaire he can find who will try to protect his regime at Disney.
This is more of a delaying tactic on Iger’s part. After all, Peltz is in his eighties, and it doesn’t take much to carry off someone at that age. Also, Iger gets a year for something magical to happen that raises Disney’s admittedly undervalued stock price.
The fundamental problem is that there is no reason at all for Disney’s stock price to turn around. The company is being reduced in size, which appears to be the plan to get it back to profitability, but the Disney brand has been severely damaged. The parks no longer give good value for the money spent. Disney Difference is a thing of the past today, and it’s not coming back. The people who could make that magic happen are gone now. What’s left are professional diversity hires.
The healthy franchises that Disney bought have all been train-wrecked. Pixar is nothing without John Lassetter. The people who loved Marvel enough to turn its universe into a box office legend have all been forced out and aren’t coming back so long as Fiege is running the place. Star Wars is a corpse that’s still being kept on life support because no one can admit the patient is dead. I suppose it’s still viable if they can get the budgets below $40 million consistently, but it is not going to make billions anymore. As for Disney Animation, the key to its success was living treasures like the Nine Old Men. There is no one remotely like that at Disney today. That fortune in human knowledge was irreplaceable, and it’s gone now.
ESPN can still float the company, but it can’t expand to take the place of the movies and parks.
Disney’s future under Iger remains bleak.
There are already stockholders of the Disney Company pointing out that their stock value would instantly improve if the parks were split off into separate companies or if ESPN was spun off so Disney could get into sports gambling and, while they are at it wrap a stator around Walt’s coffin so his corpse’s constant spinning could power California.
Nelson Peltz is the kind of activist investor who actually tries to improve the companies he joins. Normally, activist investing means looting a company, selling off every asset down to the carpet tacks, and selling off the empty husk. That is exactly what is going to happen to Disney sometime in the next ten years if Bob Iger remains as CEO.
What do you think of Nelson Peltz being blocked from Disney’s board by Bob Iger? Leave a comment and let us know.
Bob Iger is an evil dictator. I don’t know what else to tell you.
“we believe Mr. Peltz’s latest effort is driven by animus against Mr. Iger and an ego-driven urge to claim credit for a transformation already underway.”
There is no evidence that any positive transformation is already underway. The exact opposite appears to be the case.
“Disney’s current leadership is invaluable to its shareholders” this one gave me a good laugh. I honestly hope Iger stays on. I want to see Disney die at this point.