Disney is fighting back against activist investor Nelson Peltz’s bid to occupy a seat on their board and defended their CEO Bob Iger, saying that Peltz has “no track record” with large media companies, according to CNBC.
Peltz and his firm, Trian, have started a proxy battle and laid out his case for the Disney proxy fight last week with claims that shareholder value has been eroded along with raising issues with Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox back in 2019.
“Peltz has no track record in large cap media or tech, no solutions to offer for the evolving media landscape,” Disney said in an investor presentation released on Tuesday, via CNBC. Trian said it owns about 9.4 million shares valued at roughly $900 million.
In a filing on Tuesday, Disney defended the numerous acquisitions that have closed under Iger, who recently returned to his role as CEO, which include the likes of the Marvel brand and Lucasfilm, alleging that those enhanced the company’s value for shareholders and were transformative for the company.
Disney stated that in addition to it’s succession planning they are also in the midst of a cost-cutting plan and prioritizing streaming profitability.
Furthermore, Disney claims that they offered Peltz an information-sharing agreement, meaning Peltz would have met quarterly with both management and the board, rather than a board observer role and referred to a number of interactions between Disney and Trian.
