Walt
Disney
is finding it hard to shake off figures from its recent past. Activist investor Nelson Peltz has returned to the offensive at the company and he is being backed by former Marvel Chairman Isaac Perlmutter, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Peltz’s Trian Fund Management previously was reported to have built up a stake of more than $2.5 billion in
Disney
(ticker: DIS) and to be seeking multiple board seats at the company.
The majority of Trian’s controlled stake is made up of shares owned by Perlmutter, who plans to urge Disney’s board to accept one or more of Trian’s nominees, according to a Journal report on Monday.
Perlmutter is one of Disney’s largest independent shareholders due to his sale of superhero company Marvel to the entertainment giant in 2009 for $4 billion. Perlmutter was employed by Disney until earlier this year when his role was terminated amid a wave of layoffs implemented by Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Perlmutter isn’t seeking to join Disney’s board himself or to return to the company but he believes the company is underachieving, he told the Journal. Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Disney shares were up 0.6% in premarket trading on Monday but have fallen more than 8% this year.
The nominating window for Disney’s board of directors opens in December, meaning Peltz’s Trian hasn’t officially launched a fresh proxy battle against the company. Peltz abandoned a previous effort to push its way onto the board earlier this year when Iger outlined a $5.5 billion cost-cutting plan involving 7,000 layoffs.
Patrick Gadson, co-head of the shareholder activism practice at law firm Vinson & Elkins, told Barron’s he expects Peltz to push ahead with a proxy battle unless there are radical changes at Disney, such as announcing an external investor for ESPN or the spinoff of ABC and other linear TV channels.
“I think it would take something of that level for [Peltz] to announce that he’s no longer pursuing more radical change at the board,” Gadson said.
Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]
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