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Disney Suggests Ex-Marvel Chair's Firing Spurring Peltz's Proxy Fight

November 30, 2023 at 10:49 pm IST

By Dean Seal

Disney is standing by its two recent director appointments as activist investor Nelson Peltz prepares a proxy battle backed by Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, the former Marvel Entertainment chairman ousted by Disney earlier this year.

The entertainment giant said Thursday that Peltz's Trian Fund Management is planning a proxy campaign backed by a raft of 33 million shares, 25 million of which belong to Perlmutter.

Disney said Perlmutter's significant contribution to the stake is relevant to shareholders assessing Trian's nominees because Perlmutter was fired by Disney earlier this year and has since voiced "his longstanding personal agenda" against Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger.

The company is pushing back against grievances Trian aired on Thursday morning after Disney tapped Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman and former Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch as director nominees.

The activist hedge-fund firm said Disney has offered to meet with Trian but rejected its request for board representation. The new appointments were an "improvement from the status quo" but won't restore investor confidence in the company, Trian said.

Disney responded in a statement that it is coming out of 12 months of restructuring and moving from a "period of fixing to a new era of building."

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Peltz had grown his stake in Disney and was planning to seek multiple board seats. Trian launched a short-lived proxy campaign against Disney about a year ago, but backed off when Chief Executive Bob Iger announced $5.5 billion in budget cuts and cut about 7,000 positions from the company's payroll.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-30-23 1218ET

Stocks mentioned in the article

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	WALT DISNEY COMPANY (THE)	101.1 USD	-1.27%	-1.68%	19TCr
	MORGAN STANLEY	97.45 USD	-1.24%	-3.22%	16TCr

Nelson Peltz

Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American businessman and a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management. L.P., an alternative investment management fund, based in New York.

Early life and education
Peltz was born in 1942 to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, He was enrolled at the undergraduate program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he joined the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta, but never completed his degree. Triangle was sold to Pechiney in 1988.

In 1997, through an investment vehicle they controlled, Triarc Cos, Peltz and May acquired Snapple, from Quaker Oats. Snapple, together with other beverage brands was sold to Cadbury Schweppes in 2000. The Snapple turnaround was featured as a Harvard Business School case study.

In 2006 Trian was involved in a proxy contest with Heinz to get five independent directors on the board of Heinz. In the end Trian succeeded in getting two members on the board, including Peltz.

In 2007, Trian bought a 3% share of Cadbury-Schweppes which may have influenced the spin-off of Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages from the Cadbury Schweppes confectionery group. In 2007, Trian also bought $1.8 billion in shares of Kraft Foods, roughly a 3% of the total equity of the food maker.Cite news| url = |title= Peltz Has His Slic

Source @ Wikipedia

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Trian Fund Management LP Trian Fund Management LP Investment ManagersFinance Trian Fund Management LP (Trian) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor and hedge fund manager headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded by Nelson Peltz, Edward Garden and Peter May in 2005 and do-business-as Trian Partners. Trian provides discretionary investment advisory services to a variety of domestic and offshore private investment partnerships and other investment vehicles.	Chief Executive Officer
Trian Partners General Partner LLC Trian Partners General Partner LLC Miscellaneous Commercial ServicesCommercial Services Trian Partners General Partner LLC provides business services related to hedge funding. The company is the general partner of Trian Onshore, Trian Offshore, and Trian Offshore (Non-ERISA). It is located in New York, NY.	Chief Executive Officer

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