Bob Iger Wins Disney Proxy Battle After Board Turns Down Nelson Peltz’s Bid

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Bob Iger Wins Disney Proxy Battle After Board Turns Down Nelson Peltz’s Bid

Bob Iger has won the ongoing Disney proxy battle after Disney shareholders shot down Nelson Peltz’s efforts to win seats on the board of directors.

Per Variety, Peltz, who runs an investment firm called Trian Partners, failed to get enough votes to get a seat on Disney’s board of directors.

Trian’s other nominee, Jay Rasulo, and three other nominees from Blackwells Capital also didn’t get enough votes, meaning that all 12 Disney current board members, including Iger, were reelected.

“Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s senior EVP, chief legal and compliance officer, who oversaw the proceedings at the meeting, said that the preliminary vote tabulations showed Disney’s 12 directors had won reelection by a ‘substantial margin.’ He added that the official vote counts will be disclosed in the subsequent meeting minutes,” Variety’s article states.

What was Disney’s proxy battle about?

The Disney proxy battle centered around Peltz (who is also the chairman of the board of directors of Wendy’s) and Trian Partners attempting to bring “urgently needed change” to Disney’s board. According to Variety, Peltz cited “the media company’s stock underperformance over the last several years and the board’s ‘botched’ succession planning with former CEO Bob Chapek” as his reason for campaigning.

Peltz’s bid was backed by former Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter, who owns around $3 billion in Disney stock, according to a March 2024 article from The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Variety, the battle is believed to be one of the most expensive proxy battles in United States history, with Disney estimating the company would spend around $40 million in related costs.

“In the end, the majority of Disney’s shareholders decided to stick with the current board — no doubt helped by a turnaround in the Disney stock price, which has jumped 35% year to date,” Variety’s article reads. “For the 2023 year-end quarter, Disney showed improvements in cost containment, while investors also appeared to rally around new strategic initiatives like the company’s investment in Epic Games and Iger’s announcement that the stand-alone streaming version of ESPN in set to launch in 2025.”

Iger stepped down as Disney’s CEO in 2021 but was then reinstated one year later after the board fired Bob Chapek. His contract currently expires at the end of 2026.