Walt Disney Company calls for shareholder support in upcoming board election

Feb 01, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Posted: Thursday February 1, 2024 5:37pm Et by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney Company has urged its shareholders to vote for its 12 board nominees at the upcoming Annual Meeting on April 3, 2024, and to ignore the nominees from the Trian Group and Blackwells.

In a letter to shareholders sent today, Disney emphasized its strategy, focusing on brand assets, cost reduction, and dividend reinstatement while enhancing streaming services, film studios, ESPN, and Disney's Experiences business.

Referring to the non-Disney nominees, the company said, "Your Board does not endorse either of the Trian Group's nominees (Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo) or any of Blackwells' nominees (Craig Hatkoff, Jessica Schell and Leah Solivan). We believe that the election of any of these individuals would impede leadership's ongoing execution of Disney's strategic realignment and the Board's efforts to create value for shareholders."

The letter then goes on to say that Mr. Peltz brings no media experience and has presented no strategic ideas for Disney, while Mr. Rasulo's perspective is stale, given he left Disney in 2015 and has not held any executive positions in the industry since.

The Trian Group, which owns more than $3 billion of shares of The Walt Disney Company, is urging Disney shareholders to withhold votes for board members, Mr. Froman and Ms. Lagomasino. They argue that Froman's experience outside of Disney, mainly in government and finance, is largely irrelevant to the company's business, and he possesses only one skill central to Disney's strategy. Similarly, they contend that Lagomasino's background in wealth management is unrelated to Disney's core business. Trian also criticizes Lagomasino for misaligned compensation practices, including a significant package for Mr. Iger and a 2023 compensation program they believe does not align with Disney's performance. Furthermore, both nominees are part of the Governance and Nominating Committee, which Trian accuses of poor corporate governance and succession issues.

You can read the full letter to Disney shareholders here.

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Sirwalterraleigh23 days ago

Say it 1000 times…it’s not gonna be true Doubling prices in 10 years is not “inflation” And not only that…that government sanctioned (frankly) excuse from the plague is starting to collapse…as products are increasingly rejected Get your popcorn and watch it play

Sirwalterraleigh23 days ago

That would involve reading books…or Wikipedia at a minimum… It’s a lot to ask 🤪

JD8023 days ago

Price increase recently have been basically on par with inflation.

Ayla23 days ago

And prices continue to rise at a ridiculous rate...

Dranth23 days ago

What amazes me it that this has been repeated throughout history over and over and over and yet we never seem to learn that eventually people break when things get this far out of whack.

Sirwalterraleigh23 days ago

I don’t…it’s 100% about growing economic strife…for decades Even when it’s not “about that”…it ultimately gets back to it. Anger 101

Dranth23 days ago

It is gross how much CEO pay has shot up since 1980 when it really took off. Think I remember reading an article that pegged it at something like 1800% increase over that time. Can't recall if that was adjusted for inflation or not but either way it is a pretty massive increase. Obviously, it depends on the position but if you compare CEOs to their lowest paid, full-time hourly positions instead of the average it gets a lot uglier. If Iger got 41.1 million in 2024 then he is making roughly 1,170 times his base level employees. Generously, let's say a CEO puts in 80-hour work weeks, that means for 2024 he was making around $160 a minute. That is close to what an hourly employee will make in a full day if not more. Just for fun (the depressing kind), if Elon's 4.49 billion a year package from Tesla holds up, he will be getting around 128,200 times the lowest paid full-time positions. There aren't enough hours in the week for him to put in 80 at Tesla given all his other positions he has but let’s say he did. That would mean he was making $18,000 a minute or $300.00 a second. In that case, he is making around twice as much per second as his lowest level employees do in a day. And folks wonder why everyone is angry all the time.

Sirwalterraleigh23 days ago

…shovels at the ready The line starts right behind Willow 😱 Remember: only HE can save us all 🤫

JoeCamel23 days ago

One stat I saw was he makes 746 times what the average TWDC employee makes edit: but even if he worked for nothing it wouldn't move the needle on company earnings

GhostHost100023 days ago

Bob’s salary increased 30% meanwhile we have a cost cutting thread

JoeCamel23 days ago

I really think Bob needs a well paid geriatric pool boy...... https://blogmickey.com/2025/01/bob-igers-pay-2024/

DCBaker24 days ago

Details for the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders:

MisterPenguinJan 02, 2025

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-stocks-review-2024-netflix-walt-disney-warner-bros-discovery-1236087500/ https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/media-stocks-2024-netflix-disney-warner-bros-discovery-1236262140/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/2025-entertainment-stock-picks-disney-netflix-spotify-take-two-1236087572/

BrianLoDec 04, 2024

Not at all. Comcast wanted Fox and Disney wanted Sky. They both lost something, but Roberts only got the stinker and Dis was bid up unnecessarily. The only one who truly came out on top was Murdoch. Unless I’m misunderstanding you and you think Comcast didn’t want Fox?