Scoring a big and costly win Wednesday against Nelson Peltz’s second attempt to get on the Disney board, Bob Iger was both gracious and a little biting in victory. Once the vote results were announced this morning during Disney’s annual meeting of shareholders, the past and present CEO address the virtual meeting to thank “shareholders for your trust and confidence in the Disney board and management and the ambitious strategy we’re implementing across our businesses to build for the future.” Of course, hav ...

Disney has succeeded in barring Nelson Peltz from its board of directors as shareholders at the company’s hotly anticipated annual meeting today have voted for its slate of 12 nominees, fending off outsiders. It was a months-long bitter and costly fight. The numbers are preliminary with official results still to be formally announced. But according to Disney, this was Peltz’ biggest-ever loss in a proxy fight, and he’s engaged in a few. Peltz received less than 31% of the vote. CEO Bob Iger, also on the b ...

The minutes are ticking down to the close of Disney’s bitter proxy fight with Nelson Peltz, whose attempt to scale the board is a direct challenge to CEO Bob Iger. Barring any hanging chads, results from voting for members of the board of directors will be revealed Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. (Polls officially close at 11:59 p.m. ET tonight.) Iger fought, and authorized the spending of $40 million, to quash the interloper activist investor, but win or lo ...

Around 100 hours before the deadline for all Disney shareholders to cast their ballots in the acrid board clash between the Mouse House and activist investor Nelson Peltz, one of the country’s top pension funds just rolled its cannons onto the battlefield. With 6.7 million shares in Disney, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) just blew a hole through Bob Iger and supporters’ hard fought efforts to keep the Ike Perlmutter-backed Peltz and a former CFO from gaining seats on the board ...

Disney and its current CEO, Bob Iger, have secured the backing of Iger’s onetime boss, former Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. In a statement posted to social media, Eisner didn’t name Nelson Peltz, whose Trian Fund Management is mounting an offensive to win two seats on Disney’s board at the April 3 annual shareholder meeting. But the longtime media exec wrote that “bringing in someone who doesn’t have experience in the company or the industry to disrupt Bob and his eventual successor is playing not only ...

Paramount Global shares, which soared Wednesday on news that Apollo had made an $11 billion offer for Paramount Pictures, has slumped today after a report splashed cold water on the scenario. Shares in the media company had dropped 5% by mid-day, to below $12, after the Financial Times reported that controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is “unconvinced” by the private equity offer. Apollo’s offer, which valued just the studio at more than the entirety of Paramount Global, pushed the stock up 12% on Wednes ...

The Justice Department and more than a dozen state attorneys general have sued Apple, claiming that the tech giant has an illegal monopoly over the smartphone market. Attorney General Merrick Garland will appear at a press conference this morning to detail the lawsuit. In a statement, per Reuters, he said that consumers “should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws. If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen the smartphone monopoly.” The lawsuit is th ...

After skidding to multi-year lows in late-2023, Disney stock has rebounded more than 20% thus far in 2024 as two activist investment firms have launched a proxy fight. The stock finished Thursday trading at $110.18, up a fraction. It started the year at $90.10, putting its gains at 22% for the year to date. Goosing the stock price is a stated goal of two activist investment firms that have taken aim at Disney’s top execs and board of directors ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3. I ...

Paramount Global could be set for change in the tough Indian media market. A Bloomberg report, citing unnamed sources, claims the MTV and Comedy Central owner is in talks with Reliance Industries to sell its stake in their channels and streaming venture, Viacom18. This would allow Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, to consolidate his media assets as his conglom Reliance Industries prepares to form its new merged venture with Disney India. Reliance already majority controls Viacom18, whose JioCinema has be ...

Disney CEO Bob Iger called the proxy fight being waged by two activist investors a campaign that “is, in a way, designed to distract us, to take our eye off all [that’s] necessary to do what we need to do to generate returns for shareholders.” Nelson Peltz ‘ Trian Partners is fielding two director candidates – himself and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo — and has been aggressively soliciting Disney stockholders. Investment firm Blackwells Capital has nominated three candidates. Shareholders will elect t ...