There’s a war raging over seats on Disney’s board of directors — and it all comes to a head on April 3 at the media giant’s annual shareholders meeting. That’s when investors will cast their votes for Disney’s 12-person board.
Disney announced its 12 board nominees in January, including CEO Bob Iger. A few days later, Trian Partners — which owns a roughly $3.5 billion stake in Disney — formally nominated its co-founder Nelson Peltz and ex-Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo for board seats. That kicked off a fierce proxy fight over the company’s future.
Trian Partners released a 133-page paper this month outlining Peltz’s plans for the company, which include completing a successful CEO succession , aligning performance-based compensation with shareholder value, and developing a strategy to reach margins similar to Netflix’s 15-20% by 2027.
Since then, some of the biggest names in business and entertainment have picked sides, between Team Disney led by Iger, and Team Peltz.
Here’s where the teams stand now.
Team Disney and Bob Iger
Laurene Powell Jobs
Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder and co-president of the grant making organization Emerson Collective, backed Disney’s nominations on March 21.
Powell Jobs is also the widow of Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple and the animation studio Pixar.
“My family and I have been significant investors in The Walt Disney Company for nearly two decades, and in that time, we have seen the company transformed thanks to the steady and visionary leadership of Bob Iger and Disney’s expert Board of Directors,” Powell Jobs said in a statement. “I urge my fellow shareholders to support Bob and the company’s slate of highly qualified Director nominees.”
George Lucas
Star Wars creator George Lucas is the largest individual investor in Disney. He got 37.1 million Disney shares when he sold his production company Lucasfilm to the company for $4.05 billion 2012.
Lucas told CNBC on March 19, that he’s backing Iger and his board picks.
“Creating magic is not for amateurs. When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago, I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my long-time admiration for its iconic brand and Bob Iger’s leadership,” Lucas said in a statement. “When Bob recently returned to the company during a difficult time, I was relieved. No one knows Disney better.”
Jamie Dimon
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon voiced his support for Iger and Disney on March 13.
“Bob is a first-class executive and outstanding leader who I’ve known for decades. He knows the media and entertainment business cold and has the successful track record to prove it,” Dimon told CNBC.
Disney has paid JPMorgan Chase more $160 million in fees since 2014, Reuters reports.
The Disney family
Nine grandchildren of the media company’s co-founder, Walt and Roy Disney, have come out against Peltz’s plans.
“They are not interested in preserving the Disney magic, but stripping it to the bone to make a quick profit for themselves,” Roy P. Disney told The New York Times in late February.
In one of two letters to Disney shareholders, the Disney heirs wrote,“Bob Iger has grown this company in a modern world, and he continues to maintain a balance of creativity and profit.”
Glass Lewis
The influential proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis has endorsed all of Disney’s nominees and praised Iger.
In a report obtained by Deadline, the firm said Disney “is undertaking what we consider to be a credible effort to shift key operational priorities under the leadership of one of the most well-respected CEOs in the industry.”
Team Nelson Peltz
Ike Perlmutter
Ike Perlmutter, former chairman of Marvel Entertainment, gave Peltz voting control for his significant number of Disney shares in October.
After selling Marvel to Disney for $4 billion in 2009, Perlmutter has become one of the company’s biggest independent shareholders.
In March 2023, Perlmutter was let go from Disney as part of a cost-cutting campaign, but he told The Wall Street Journal that he was actually fired.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)
The proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended shareholders support Peltz along with 11 of Disney’s 12 nominees.
“Dissident nominee Peltz, as a significant shareholder, could be additive to the succession process, providing assurance to other investors that the board is properly engaged this time around. He could also help evaluate future capital allocation decisions,” ISS wrote in a 34-page report obtained by Quartz that it shared with investors on March 22.
The nod from ISS was especially welcome news for Peltz: The group is remarkably effective in backing winning candidates for board seats. A 2023 report from Barclays found that about 75% of nominees endorsed by ISS end up getting elected.