Nelson Peltz (Unilever PR pic)
It’s official! Nelson Peltz’s long struggle to take over Disney has come to a disappointing end. On Wednesday, the Walt Disney Company’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to reject Peltz’s slate of candidates for the Disney board, with 75% giving a vote of confidence in the continued leadership of the current Disney head Bob Iger.
Nelson Peltz’s Disney bid was made by his hedge fund Trian Partners.
“While we are disappointed with the outcome of this proxy contest, Trian greatly appreciates all of the support and dialogue we have had with Disney stakeholders. We are proud of the impact we have had in refocusing this Company on value creation and good governance,” Trian Partners said in a statement.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at office@jewishbusinessnews.com.
Thank you.
“I want to thank our shareholders for their trust and confidence in our Board and management,” Iger said in a press release. “With the distracting proxy contest now behind us, we’re eager to focus 100% of our attention on our most important priorities: growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers.”
But Bob Iger is not out of the fire just yet.
Needham analyst Laura Martin told Yahoo Finance, “The pressure on Bob Iger [until he retires in 2026] will stay really right. Activists are circling this company and they’re only kept at bay if the share price keeps going up.”
Nelson Peltz is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He is the non-executive chairman of Wendy’s Company, Sysco, and The Madison Square Garden Company. He is a former director of H.J. Heinz Company, Mondelēz International, and Ingersoll Rand and a former CEO of Triangle Industries.
Peltz is known for being an activist investor, which means that he buys stakes in companies and then pushes for changes to improve their performance. He has a reputation for being tough and demanding, but he has also been successful in helping companies to improve their profitability.
