As Disney’s Annual Meeting Looms, Both Sides Make a Final Push For Votes
As The Walt Disney Company’s annual meeting looms, both Disney and activist investor Nelson Peltz are making a final push for shareholder votes.
In the last week, Bob Iger made a public pitch to shareholders at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, stating that he believes the company is in a good position with the right leadership team in place. The proxy fights, Iger says, are simply a distraction from the real goal.
Photo: Getty Images
“And this campaign is in a way designed to distract us. To take our eye off all of those balls that we talked about that are necessary at time and focus is necessary to generate what we need to generate for the shareholders. It’s that simple. And I am working really hard to not let this distract me because when I get distracted, everybody who works for me is distracted, and that’s not a good thing. I’ll leave it at that.”
Photo: Disney
Iger has been aided in his campaign lately by the bullish attitude of Wall Street towards Disney and the public endorsement of nine of Walt and Roy Disney’s grandchildren.
Disney Runs Ads on LinkedIn
While Iger has put on a confident face, Disney is clearly doing all it can to ensure support.
The company even started running ads on LinkedIn that urge shareholders to “vote now for Disney’s 12 nominees using the WHITE proxy card.”
Photo: LinkedIn
“Disney has a strong board with a clear vision. Vote now for Disney’s 12 nominees using the WHITE proxy card,” the ad is captioned.
Peltz Makes His Pitch
Nelson Peltz, meanwhile, has released a 166-page “white document” laying out his plan to turn around Disney.
Nelson Peltz
Today, the activist investor and his ally Jay Rasulo held a live question and answer session where they assured voters that they were not looking to fire Iger.
A Vote-Buying Website Has Been Set Up
Additionally, “mystery shareholders” have set up shop on the Shareholder Vote Exchange, a seemingly legal website where shareholders can auction off their proxy votes to the highest bidder.
At this time, the highest bid for a lot of 500,000 Disney votes is $100,000, or 20 cents per vote.
Photo: The Walt Disney Company
Currently, there are just over 20,000 votes listed for sale in this auction. Votes have been listed in smaller bundles, from one single vote to 5,000. If the number of votes for sale does not reach 500,000, no sale will take place.
The 500,000 shares represent just a small fraction of the total 1.8 billion shares of Disney. Still, in a contest this heated, every vote may matter. Peltz currently controls more than 33 million shares.
The Walt Disney Company. Photo: Disney
Blackwells Capital, another activist investor, is also looking to gain seats on the Disney board. Their portfolio, however, is much smaller than Trian’s.
From vote-buying to endorsements and public campaigning, the proxy fight between Peltz, Blackwells, and Disney is entering the endgame. Everything will come to a head on April 3.
