Walt Disney shareholders expressed their support for current CEO Bob Iger on Wednesday. This has averted the campaign by activist investors who advocated a change in management.
All twelve current Disney board members were re-elected in a vote at the shareholders meeting on Wednesday. This ends a long and especially expensive power struggle between the Disney board, billionaire Nelson Peltz and the hedge fund Blackwells Capital.
Disney CEO Iger and billionaire Peltz had been embroiled in a battle for months to get as many shareholders as possible on their side. They did not look at a dollar. Disney is said to have already spent $40 million, with Peltz the counter would be $25 million. These are record amounts for these types of recruitment campaigns.
“With the distracting proxy battle behind us, we want to focus 100 percent of our attention on our top priorities: growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers,” Iger said.
Peltz, the CEO of Trian Fund Management, and Blackwells jointly wanted five seats on Disney’s board. They alleged that the media company bungled its CEO succession planning, lost its creative spark and failed to properly deploy new technology.
Although Disney’s board has held off the activists’ coup, it still needs to find a successor for the 72-year-old Iger, who will retire at the end of 2026.
