News The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors Extends Robert A. Iger’s Contract as CEO Through 2026

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WoundedDreamer

Well-Known Member
There’s a new article out from the WSJ. It shows a fight that is shaping up to be close.

Exclusive | Disney, Trian Blitz Shareholders for Votes in Last Stretch of Proxy Fight


Exclusive | Disney, Trian Blitz Shareholders for Votes in Last Stretch of Proxy Fight

For those without a WSJ account, here is an essential quote:

“So far, a minority of shareholders have voted. As of Tuesday, just over 22% of shares had been cast, according to people familiar with the matter, the bulk of them held by individual and other smaller investors.

Among those who have already cast their votes, Peltz leads Disney director Maria Elena Lagomasino, while Rasulo, the other name on the Trian slate, has so far failed to gain much of a foothold with shareholders, these people said. A spokesman for Disney said leaking an early vote count was ‘a highly inappropriate attempt to sway votes.’


Most shareholders are able to vote or alter a previous vote until the polls are officially closed, which happens the day of the annual meeting.”


And another:

“People who have spoken to Iger in recent weeks have described him as confident and happy with the direction of the company. He told one associate that he is confident Disney will prevail.”
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
WoundedDreamer said:
I have to give credit to Peltz. I always thought this was a long shot. But the fact he is leading, definitely proves me wrong. This is going to be closer than I ever could have expected!
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WoundedDreamer

Well-Known Member
There are roughly 1.4 Billion eligible voting shares of The Walt Disney Company.

At 22% of the votes cast, that means around 300 Million votes have been cast. Around 1.1 Billion shares remain in contention. Lets be conservative and suppose Peltz has 12% of the vote. That puts Peltz at around 170 Million shares on his side.

Trian has control of ~30 Million shares. That means Peltz has already generated around 140 Million votes apart from the shares that he controls. This is an accomplishment. Of course, this proxy fight is only just getting started. Peltz has a long way to go in order to get a seat. But how many votes does Peltz need?

Last year, around 250 Million shares did not cast a vote. Those were likely retail investors who simply did not receive materials to vote, or just didn't bother to take the time to vote. Let's again be conservative and say that due to the intense media coverage surrounding this proxy fight, more retail shareholders will be energized and vote because they feel that this voting session is more consequential than 2023... Which it demonstrably is. I have family member who probably has never bothered to vote before, who plans to because so much is stake. Because of this, let's moderate the "non-voters votes" to 200 Million shares.

That means there are about 1.2 Billion votes available. Of that, around 25% (~300 Million) of the voters votes have already voted been cast. In our hypothetical, Peltz has about 170 Million votes to Iger's 130 Million votes. In order for Peltz to secure a seat, he needs to get at least ~430 Million more votes.

I suspect that more leaks will be forthcoming over the next week. We still haven't heard what the Murdochs are planning to do. They reportedly own ~63 Million shares. That's an important voting block for each side.

Edit: I had a few typos where I erroneously referred to "votes" as "voters." I think I accidentally slipped into "political" language rather than "financial" language. Thanks to @flynnibus for pointing this out. You can see the errors with strikethroughs for transparency.
 
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W

WoundedDreamer

Well-Known Member
Edit: @Casper Gutman pointed out that my interpretation of the events was flawed. This was in fact not an anti-ESG measure. In fact, it was pro-ESG. Thanks for pointing this out, Casper! Here is the original post (italicized) unaltered for context. Again, take this post with a grain of salt.


Here's another interesting fact. Disney's retail shareholders seem to lean conservative. I'm basing this on an anti-ESG shareholder proposal that proved remarkably effective last year. Here's what happened...

In 2023, an anti-ESG shareholder made a proposal that Disney should report on political donations over ten thousand dollars. Usually, these types of proposals fail to garner any sort of meaningful support when the board recommends someone vote against them (which Disney did). Other proposals in that year's meeting failed to generate even 100 Million votes.

But this anti-ESG proposal stormed the polls. It got a whopping 400 Million votes last year. Iger was able to decisively defeat the proposal with institutional shareholder power. Iger leveraged the institutions to garner 700 Million votes. This was a battle between the retail investor and the institutional investor. The retail investor was beaten by the institutional ones.

But this year, things are different. Peltz is peeling off institutional investors. Iger needed to keep a unified pool of institutional investors to oppose the retail investors who actually seem more likely to back Peltz than Iger. That's not happening.

I hadn't been aware of this showdown before. Iger could actually be in serious trouble.
 
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WoundedDreamer

Well-Known Member
Iger's concern about the retail investors does explain some of his behavior. Buying web ads, getting celebrity endorsements, putting out videos with animated characters, the website. He's really scared that the retail voters are going to leave him for Peltz. So, he's pulling out all the stops to court them.

This whole thing is wild. I was still pretty pessimistic that Peltz could actually get on the board. I'd now say his chances are actually 50-50. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this could go either way. Wow.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
WoundedDreamer said:
Here's another interesting fact. Disney's retail shareholders seem to lean conservative. I'm basing this on an anti-ESG shareholder proposal that proved remarkably effective last year. Here's what happened...

In 2023, an anti-ESG shareholder made a proposal that Disney should report on political donations over ten thousand dollars. Usually, these types of proposals fail to garner any sort of meaningful support when the board recommends someone vote against them (which Disney did). Other proposals in that year's meeting failed to generate even 100 Million votes.

But this anti-ESG proposal stormed the polls. It got a whopping 400 Million votes last year. Iger was able to decisively defeat the proposal with institutional shareholder power. Iger leveraged the institutions to garner 700 Million votes. This was a battle between the retail investor and the institutional investor. The retail investor was beaten by the institutional ones.

But this year, things are different. Peltz is peeling off institutional investors. Iger needed to keep a unified pool of institutional investors to oppose the retail investors who actually seem more likely to back Peltz than Iger. That's not happening.

I hadn't been aware of this showdown before. Iger could actually be in serious trouble.
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Why would shareholders who “lean conservative” back Peltz?

I’ve been told in outraged terms that none of the Peltz fans have unspoken motives.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Casper Gutman said:
One of the most ignorant things in this thread is the constant treatment of Peltz as a plucky underdog.

Have any of our Peltz fans addressed his comments about Black Panther? Raleigh did, but he’s not intentionally pro-Peltz, he’s just… doing his own thing.
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What's not to root for? The poor guy only has on his side a can-do attitude, a soul-stealing smile, and billions of dollars!!
 

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