Disney’s (DIS) highly publicized proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz is officially over.
The hedge fund billionaire, who first announced his proxy fight early last month, revealed the news in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
“Now Disney plans to do everything we wanted them to do. We wish the very best to Bob, this management team and the board,” Peltz said, referring to CEO Bob Iger. “We will be watching. We will be rooting.”
In a statement to Yahoo Finance, Peltz’s Trian Fund Management added: “The proxy fight is over. This is a win for all shareholders.”
Trian said it owns approximately 9.4 million shares of Disney’s stock, which equates to roughly $900 million. The hedge fund, which initially disapproved of Iger’s surprise return, had been pushing for additional cost cuts, operational adjustments, a post-Iger successor, and a reinstatement of the company’s dividend.
Iger provided updates to all of those concerns during the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, revealing the media giant will lay off 7,000 workers as it seeks to slash $5.5 billion in costs. As a result, it will restructure the organization into three core business segments: Disney Entertainment; ESPN; and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
Iger also said he asked the board to reinstate the company’s dividend by the end of the calendar year. The dividend, which was halted during the pandemic in an effort to conserve cash, will be “modest” at first but steadily increase over time, the executive said, adding: “Our cost-cutting initiatives will make this possible.”
On the topic of succession, Iger pointed to Disney’s board establishing a “dedicated succession planning committee headed by Mark Parker.” Iger said Parker would step into the role of board chair after its annual meeting in early April.
Disney shares continued to climb higher in early trading on Thursday following the news, up about 3%.
Disney reported quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday that showed a beat on both the top and bottom lines as demand for the company’s theme parks soared during the holiday period.
As expected, Disney+ subscribers showed a slight dip in the first quarter due to the absence of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament on its Indian brand, Disney+ Hotstar.
Streaming losses narrowed to $1.1 billion in Q1 against a loss of $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter — ahead of the company’s previous guidance as Disney’s ad-supported tier and recent price increases helped pare losses.
Wednesday’s report served as the first since Iger’s return to the company in November.
