Nelson Peltz Insists, Again, His Fight With Disney Is About The Board, Not Bob Iger – But It’s A Fine Line
25.03.2024 - 15:49
/ deadline.com
Nelson Peltz said today that his bitter proxy fight with Disney is “not about Mr. Iger, nor is it a referendum about his leadership” even as CNBC reported that his firm, Trian Partners, has withheld votes from the CEO, who is also a board nominee.
Trian didn’t respond to a request for comment. But the firm clearly feels it needs to walk a fine line between attacking Disney’s board, but not its rather popular CEO.
Publicly, Trian has been aggressively lobbying shareholders to withhold votes only from Disney board nominees Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasio and back Peltz and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo instead. The board has 12 members which will be the nominees who wind up with the most votes. Voting is ongoing and the tally will be unveiled at the company’s annual meeting April 3.
Peltz’ flurry of communications to shareholders have mostly focused on what it calls weak and inadequate accountability provided by the board, especially regarding succession. Influential proxy advisory firm ISS last week recommended shareholders support Peltz (but not Rasulo) for the board and withhold votes from Lagomasino, also citing succession.
Disney says Peltz and Rasulo have nothing to offer strategically and their presence on the board would be detrimental. Iger has received support from luminaries in entertainment and finance from George Lucas to Laurene Powell Jobs to Jamie Dimon, and the current board received support by Glass Lewis, another big proxy advisory firm.
“In this election contest, Disney has emphasized that Mr. Iger is admired and respected … which we do not doubt. Trian supports Mr. Iger as a candidate for the Board and as CEO,” Trian said in its statement today. CNBC, however, which cited “sources
The website popstar.one is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.