Disney Fends Off Nelson Peltz in Shareholder Vote for a Second Time in 2 Years

By successful the help of shareholders on Wednesday, Mr. Iger can push ahead along with his progress plan for Disney — one that features overhauling ESPN for the streaming period, spending $60 billion on new theme park points of interest and cruise ships and discovering a brand new technology of hit motion pictures.

However the victory didn’t depart Mr. Iger, 73, with out bruises.

At first, he appeared poised to simply win. Outstanding Disney buyers like George Lucas and Laurene Powell Jobs publicly supplied help. Disney relations, together with Abigail E. Disney, blasted Mr. Peltz and his associates as “wolves in sheep’s clothes.” Analysts (Guggenheim, Macquarie) and shareholder advisory corporations (Glass Lewis, ValueEdge) threw chilly water on Trian’s marketing campaign.

It turned a a lot nearer contest after ISS, an influential shareholder advisory agency, partly sided with Trian. Mr. Peltz additionally received the backing of Egan-Jones, one other advisory; it faulted Disney for unnecessarily veering into what it referred to as “the killing fields of the tradition wars,” a reference to Disney’s blowup with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over an schooling legislation that opponents labeled “Don’t Say Homosexual.”

One massive investor that backed Mr. Peltz, the California Public Staff’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, which owns about 6.6 million Disney shares, stated the corporate would profit from “contemporary eyes.” It added that Mr. Peltz was “able to main wanted change in company governance.”

In the long run, Disney’s two greatest shareholders, Vanguard and BlackRock, which personal a mixed 12 p.c of the corporate’s shares, ignored ISS and voted for Mr. Iger’s slate of administrators. Mr. Iger additionally received essential backing from small-fry buyers: An unusually great amount of Disney shares (as much as 40 p.c) are held by people, a lot of them followers of the corporate’s motion pictures and theme parks. (On common amongst public firms, people personal nearer to fifteen p.c of the shares.)