Investor Peltz presses Disney board to replace Iger
NELSON PELTZ said Disney is unable to heal its “self-inflicted wounds” as he ramped up pressure on the media giant to replace chief executive Bob Iger.
Mr Peltz, who owns a $3bn (£2.4bn) stake in Disney through his vehicle Trian Fund Management, fired a fresh salvo at the company’s bosses as he launched a formal bid for board seats.
The investor stated that finding a replacement for Mr Iger was one of its main goals if it wins a place on the board. The 81-year-old activist has described the Disney chief as the “root cause” of all the company’s problems.
Mr Peltz vowed to “finally complete a successful CEO succession” after Mr Iger was parachuted back into the top job in 2022 less than a year after he retired. The investor also vowed to put management pay in line with performance and to improve profit margins in the House of Mouse’s streaming business to match those of rival Netflix.
It comes after Disney rejected Trian’s campaign for board seats this week. In addition to Mr Peltz, the investor is also seeking a board seat for Jay Rasulo, Disney’s former chief financial officer. Disney said Mr Peltz had “not presented a single strategic idea”, adding that he “seemed oblivious to the ongoing secular change in the media industry”.
The company said Mr Peltz and Isaac Perlmutter, a shareholder and the former Marvel chairman who is supporting the activist, had made 24 efforts to win a board seat. It also pointed to a “fraught history” between Mr Iger and Mr Perlmutter, who has twice been fired by the chief executive.
Disney has won the support of another activist investor, Valueact Capital, which has said it will support the company’s own board nominees.
Mr Peltz accused Disney of “resisting change and asking shareholders to endorse a board mainly of legacy directors (and their hand-picked successors) who have repeatedly failed to properly plan for CEO succession, misaligned the incentives of management, and failed to oversee or drive a strategy to get the streaming business to profitability or the studios to produce good content”.