Activist takes aim at Disney strategy
Walt Disney investor Blackwells Capital said the lack of a strong content and technology strategy as well as governance and transparency issues were hampering the entertainment giant’s performance, as it attempts to get board seats at the company.
Blackwells, one of the two activist shareholders seeking Disney board seats, said last week the company needed to come up with an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, and that such a move could offer a strong boost to its stock.
“Disney’s board lacks critical bandwidth and expertise in content, media, technology and governance best-practices,” Jason Aintabi, investment head of Blackwells, said in a presentation published on Monday.
Disney, shares of which were up 1.3% in premarket trading after the news, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management is also campaigning for two board seats at Disney.
Blackwells has largely backed Disney CEO Bob Iger’s leadership, but it recently laid out potential changes, including a possible breakup and spinning off its park and hotel assets into a real estate investment trust.
Earlier, Roy and Walt Disney, founders of Walt Disney Co, backed CEO Bob Iger and the board, while opposing activist investors encircling the company.
The four grandchildren of Roy Disney — Roy P. Disney, Susan Disney Lord, Abigail E Disney and Tim Disney — in an open letter to Disney shareholders expressed concerns about the threat posed by “self-anointed” activist investors, calling them “wolves in sheep’s clothing” waiting to tear the company apart.
The letter comes in the middle of Disney's ongoing proxy war with billionaire Nelson Peltz, who has pushed the entertainment giant to cut costs, create Netflix-like profit for its streaming business and clean up its succession planning.
In January, Peltz’s Trian Fund Management had urged Disney shareholders to replace directors Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino with Peltz and former Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo. Trian also criticised Disney’s investment plans earlier in March, calling it a “spaghetti against the wall plan”.
In return, Disney published a point-by-point refutation of claims made by Peltz.
The grandchildren also said in the undated letter it was important that the strategies implemented by Iger and his team are not disrupted by those “motivated by nothing more than their own self-interest”.