Nelson Peltz, founding partner and CEO of Trian Fund Management, speaks with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York on July 17, 2013.
Heidi Gutmann | CNBC, NBCU Photo Bank, NBCUniversal (Getty Images)
Isn’t it fun, Nelson Peltz?
disney Shares rose 6% in after-market trading on Wednesday. The company announced profits, and new announcements flooded the zone aimed not only at exhilarating employees and shareholders, but also at installing activist investor Nelson Peltz in his place.
Mr. Peltz has launched a proxy fight against Disney, urging him to name Mr. Peltz and former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Laszlo to replace current directors Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino. asked investors. Disney’s increased profits and a series of content and partnership announcements both appeared to be a direct rebuttal to Mr. Peltz’s concerns about the company.
“The last thing we need right now is to worry about activists who have a different agenda and don’t understand our company,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in an interview Wednesday. It will be taken away,” he said.
“We have turned a corner and entered a new era,” he added during the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call.
Peltz, who first acquired Disney stock last year, abandoned his threat of a proxy fight and then threatened again, this time telling CNBC in a statement that he would not back down.
“It’s deja vu all over again,” says Peltz’s firm, Trian Fund Management. said in a statement. “We saw this movie last year, but we didn’t like the ending.”
It’s been tough keeping up with Disney’s announcements this quarter.
- ESPN ultimately set a launch date for the direct-to-consumer service in August or fall 2025.
- Disney will buy a stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games for $1.5 billion. Iger told Boorstin that this is Disney’s “biggest foray into gaming ever.”
- Taylor Swift’s Ellas Tour movie is coming to Disney+.
- Disney increased its dividend by 50% compared to the last dividend paid in January.
- Disney has announced that the Moana sequel will be released in theaters in November, likely to be the studio’s biggest box office hit of the year.
- Disney is on track to meet or exceed its $7.5 billion spending reduction goal by the end of fiscal year 2024.
- The company said it expects Full-year 2024 earnings are expected to increase by at least 20% compared to 2023.
All of these announcements come a day after Disney announced even bigger news, announcing a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox to bring ESPN in a new slim bundle of linear networks catering to sports fans later this year. He announced that he was going to start a business. This is the first time that cable cord cutters and cordnevers will be able to access ESPN outside of a traditional cable bundle.
Given the activist pressure, it’s no surprise that there were a ton of announcements this quarter. Tryon and Blackwells Capital. Iger has a vested interest in defeating critics of his own performance and strategy.
Mr. Peltz has been a vocal critic of Mr. Iger’s management as the stock has slumped over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500. Mr. Tryon has launched a website, Restorethemagic.com, which claims that Disney is “not acting on behalf of its shareholders.”
“I’m sad that the board didn’t welcome me,” Peltz said last month. “This company just isn’t run properly.”
Mr. Iger said he had not spoken to Mr. Peltz recently and had no intention of doing so. “In deciding not to recommend Mr. Peltz, the board considered a number of factors, including that during his two-year campaign for a seat on the Disney board, “Including that Mr. Peltz did not actually present any agenda.” Disney’s strategic ideas. ”
WATCH: Disney CEO Bob Iger: ‘I’d rather be a disruptor’ on new streaming bundle partnership
