Disney Defends Its Highly Qualified Board After Two Of Its Members Targeted

Disney is standing by their “highly qualified” board members ahead of the shareholders’ meeting and Trian’s interest in two of the board seats.

In particular, Trian targeted Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino, imploring shareholders to withdraw their votes from the two long-running board members and instead elect Nelson Peltz and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo for the positions. See what Disney has to say in reply.

Disney Reveals Their Focus to Build “Sustained Growth and Profitability” With Existing Leadership

The fight to steal some positions in Disney’s 12 member board is on and investors are circling.

Following investment firm Trian Capital’s proxy statement attacking two of Disney’s board members, the Walt Disney Co. has come forward with a brand new statement, as well as revealing the date the annual shareholder meeting will take place.

On April 3, shareholders will meet virtually to discuss the future of the global entertainment company. This is an enormous change from the in-person meetings previously convened by Disney in a rotating series of cities around the U.S. in a longstanding tradition.

Co-founded by activist investor Nelson Peltz, Trian has aligned with former Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter in an attack on Disney’s stagnating stock price. They have also hit out on the company’s executives, claiming that the company’s streaming arm Disney+ has been mismanaged, amongst other things.

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Disney responded with a statement, saying that it “has the right strategy to drive profitable growth and value creation for shareholders and has made substantial progress against our objectives to make our business more efficient and effective, including a sharpened focus on our greatest brand and franchise assets, a continued commitment to cutting costs and a reinstatement of the dividend.”

Disney went on to note that its management and board “remain focused on this building plan.” This, they said, will “position our streaming businesses for sustained growth and profitability, reinvigorate the company’s film studios, fortify ESPN for the future and turbocharge growth in Disney’s Experiences business.”

Disney then advised shareholders to vote for the 12 nominees presented by the company, insisting that they “are best qualified to create sustainable shareholder value.”

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