Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger speaks during the grand opening of the Zootopia themed attraction at Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, on December 19, 2023.
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disney Vanguard, the largest shareholder and index fund manager, plans to support management of Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners in a board vote on Wednesday. Bloomberg reports on Tuesday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Institutional shareholders have until Wednesday to change their votes. Vanguard owns 7.8% of Disney. black stoneDisney’s second largest shareholder, holding 4.2% of the shares, also supports current board of directors and CEO Bob Iger. “Wall Street Journal” reports on Monday.
Reports late Tuesday about how Disney’s largest shareholder voted drew harsh criticism from former activist investor Bill Ackman.
“Only the company and its advisors have visibility into shareholder voting in advance of the annual meeting,” Ackman said. wrote on social media platform X. “The progress of the director election must be kept confidential until the final results are known, as leaking the results could affect the final outcome.”
Ackman wrote that Disney shareholders should support Peltz’s efforts, both because he would be a “great complement” to Disney and because media leaks that Ackman claims came from Disney or its advisers raise a question , i.e. why management is “trying so hard to keep him out of the way.”
If BlackRock and Vanguard both back the media company’s candidates, it would be a major blow to Peltz’s ambitions to join Disney’s board. That leaves only State Street and Geode Capital Management, the company’s third and fourth largest shareholders, respectively.
through a arrange Along with former Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter, Trian controls 1.8% of Disney’s shares, making him the fifth-largest shareholder. Retail investors can submit their votes by phone or online until 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Trian won support from other small shareholders, including Neuberger Berman and CalPERS.Disney, for its part, has brought together some of the biggest names in business and media, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Star Wars creator George Lucas.
Disney’s shareholder meeting will begin at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Vanguard declined to comment to CNBC.
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