Nelson Peltz calls off Disney proxy fight

Nelson Peltz has called time on his fight against Walt Disney less than a month after the activist investor said he would seek a seat on the company’s board of directors, ending what was expected to be one of the biggest corporate battles in recent years.

“The proxy fight is over,” Peltz said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday morning. The activist’s decision to withdraw comes after Disney revealed a restructuring plan on Wednesday and announced its intention to reinstate the dividend that had been suspended during the pandemic. That, he said, addressed the changes his hedge fund, Trian Partners, had been lobbying for.

Disney and Peltz were set to go head-to-head at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3 after it declined to nominate him as a director in early January and appointed Nike veteran Mark Parker as its next chair to get ahead of the looming fight.

The two parties traded blows following Parker’s appointment, with Trian releasing a 35-page report shortly afterwards that criticised Disney’s dealmaking, in particular its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2018. It also attacked cost inefficiencies at the media group’s streaming business and called its succession planning process “broken”. 

In turn, Disney said Peltz, who made a name for himself by taking on consumer goods businesses, had no experience in the media industry and was unsuitable for the company’s board.

In his first comments since returning as Disney chief executive in November, Bob Iger on Wednesday announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs and save $5.5bn over the next few years as it seeks to turn its streaming business to profitability. The announcement sent shares in Disney up as much as 9 per cent in after-hours trading, although its shares were 2.5 per cent higher at mid-morning on Thursday after Peltz abandoned his fight.

He also adopted one of Peltz’s main ideas: reinstating the dividend. Iger said he would ask the board to consider restarting the dividend at a modest level by the end of this year and gradually increase it. “Our cost-cutting initiatives will make this possible,” Iger said.

Those arguments appear to have persuaded Trian, which owns a $900mn stake in Disney, to back off from the proxy fight — a rare move for the fund.

“Now Disney plans to do everything we wanted them to do,” Peltz said during the CNBC interview. “We wish the very best to Bob, this management team and the board. We will be watching. We will be rooting.”

Disney said: “We respect and value the input of all our shareholders and we appreciate the decision by Trian Fund announced by Nelson Peltz this morning.”