Here comes Iger the Conquerer.
After spending millions of dollars to keep shareholders' support, Disney handily fended off a group of activist investors who were campaigning for seats on the board.
But the activists, who also shelled out mightily in their campaign to convince shareholders to vote for them, didn't even come close, it seems (more on that in a moment).
The main takeaway here is that Iger's grip on Disney's future is assured. He's about a year and a half into his turnaround plan, and, according to him, he's just getting to the good part. Let's hope so — the first part involved laying off about 4% of the workforce and broadly slashing costs across the company.
ICYMI: Disney remains one of the most successful media behemoths on the planet, but it has also seen parts of its empire stumble in recent years. Part of the problem is just part of the struggle of doing media in the 2020s: The once-lucrative tent pole of linear TV is rapidly crumbling, while its theoretical replacement, streaming services, are burning through cash. Higher interest rates have taken their toll, and movie theater audiences have grown bored with Disney's more recent continued Marvel spinoffs and sequels.
Even the Almighty Iger — who orchestrated Disney's acquisitions of Marvel and the studio behind Star Wars — last year described the media challenges as "greater than I anticipated."
Although Disney's stock is up nearly 50% over the past six months, some investors — including Trian and Blackwells Capital — haven't been satisfied.
They embodied a kind of Make Disney Great Again mantra that envisioned the company dominating the box office and raking in fat profits. And honestly, what investor wouldn't want that? Of course, the agitators were scant on details for, like, how to do it. Or how their plan would differ from what Iger and Co. were already doing.
How the battle went down
The corporate feuding came to a head at Wednesday's closely watched shareholder meeting.
Trian's nominee to the board, the 81-year-old billionaire Nelson Peltz, received less than one-third of the vote, according to a person familiar with the vote count. Peltz's ally, former Disney finance chief Jay Rasulo, also lost by a wide margin, the person said.
Following its defeat, Trian issued a statement saying it was disappointed with the outcome but "we are proud of the impact we have had in refocusing this company on value creation and good governance," it read. It added, somewhat ominously: "We will be watching the company's performance."
There was, of course, a political backdrop to this proxy battle.
Iger is a longstanding figure in liberal politics, and during his brief retirement in 2022, he spoke out about Florida's "Don't Say Gay" legislation, which he said "just seemed wrong" and "potentially harmful to kids." And afterward, we all reflected on those comments in good faith and engaged in respectful conversations about the role of corporations in politics... LOL, just kidding. Iger's successor proceeded to fumble the ball spectacularly, igniting a PR dumpster fire that was so scorching hot he eventually lost his job and was, rather mortifyingly, replaced by Iger, the man who'd handed him the keys to the empire only two years prior.
Peltz, for his part, has stated he will vote for Donald Trump this fall, and recently weighed in on what he sees as Disney bowing to the Woke Liberal Agenda. In an interview with the Financial Times, Peltz disparaged Disney's The Marvels and Black Panther movies for being so, you know, diverse.
"Why do I have to have a Marvel that's all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that? Why can't I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-Black cast?"
(Um, it's kind of right there in the name of the comic, Nelson...)
What now?
Having fended off Peltz and Trian, at least for now, Iger likely has some runway to focus on the growth phase of his plan, at least until his contract runs out in 2026, when Iger promises he'll step down.
But one former Disney executive said the fight is far from over.
"The fact that it has gotten this much traction tells you that there is a lot of dissatisfaction," the former executive, who requested anonymity, told CNN's Oliver Darcy ahead of the vote. "And even if Iger wins, it's not over."
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