Ike Perlmutter Has Sold His Entire Stake in Disney
While Nelson Peltz was understandably the face of last year’s proxy battle to get a seat on The Walt Disney Company board of directors, the activist investor was fuelled by former Marvel Entertainment head Issac “Ike” Perlmutter.
Perlmutter, a longtime antagonist of Disney CEO Bob Iger, famously sold Marvel to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion. He subsequently served as the head of Marvel Entertainment until March 2023, when he was unceremoniously laid off.
The tension between Iger and Perlmutter reached a breaking point in 2015. At the time, Perlmutter oversaw all of Marvel’s operations, including Kevin Feige and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Though Feige was the undisputed king of the box office, he still answered to Perlmutter. As production on Captain America: Civil War wound down, the frugal Perlmutter and Feige argued over the cost of the film. Feige had finally had enough.
Perlmutter vs. Iger
With Feige threatening to leave Marvel, the problem was escalated to Iger. The Disney CEO quickly reorganized Marvel, liberating Feige from Perlmutter and assigning him to report directly to then-film studio chief Alan Horn.
In his autobiography, Iger wrote about his problems with Perlmutter, who was blocking the development of certain Marvel films.
“I called Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks. And ordered that we put both Black Panther and Captain Marvel into production,” Iger wrote.
Supporting Nelson Peltz
After being undermined by Iger, Perlmutter became a thorn in the Disney CEO’s side. He campaigned behind the scenes for Nelson Peltz to get a seat on the Disney board when Bob Chapek was Disney’s CEO, warning that without Peltz on the board, Disney would eventually bring Bob Iger back.
When Disney did just that, Perlmutter used his 25.6 million shares of Disney stock to support Peltz’s proxy batttle.
In April last year, Disney’s investors voted overwhelmingly to keep Peltz off the board, a show of strength for Bob Iger.
Perlmutter Has Sold His Disney Stock
Four months later, Ike Perlmutter has sold his entire Disney position. According to the former Marvel head, he sold his shares between early April and mid-July for an average price of just under $115. When Perlmutter sold Marvel to Disney, shares in the company were trading at $26.84 million. Overall, Perlmutter made roughly $2 billion on the trade.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Perlmutter sold his stake in Disney because he does not have confidence in the current management team. Additionally, he stated that he expects the share price to continue to fall. However, if Disney shares plummet to the $65 to $75 range, Perlmutter plans to buy much of his position back.
Disney stock reached a 62-week high of $122.82 million in early April, just before shareholders foiled Peltz’s bid for a board seat. Since then, however, the stock has fallen 26%. It is currently trading at just over $91.
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