The Walt Disney Company has set the date for the 2023 shareholder meeting. This year the virtual event will be held on Monday April 3 at 10:00 AM PT.
This shareholder is being closely watched as activist investor Nelson Peltz of Trian Group looks to put himself or his son on the Disney Board of Directors. Train is currently encouraging stockholders to vote against director Michael Froman and instead go with Peltz or his son. At this point, Peltz is unhappy with Disney’s succession planning and other decisions being made by Disney. The Walt Disney Company has strongly urged its shareholders to not follow the path that Nelson Peltz is suggesting.
The annual meeting for Disney shareholders will be held virtually at virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DIS2023. Only shareholders will be able to attend the meeting. They must be previously registered ahead of the meeting to attend on or before March 29, 2023 at ProxyVote.com/Disney. There shareholders can select “Attend a Meeting.” Shareholders will need their 16-digit control number that is found on the WHITE proxy card/notice. A confirmation e-mail will be received with information on attending the meeting. Once registered, shareholders will be able to attend the annual meeting by going to virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DIS2023 and utilize the 16-digit control number.
Shareholders are encouraged to vote by proxy. Disney is against votes for Peltz’ initiative. In a recent release, Disney said that “Your vote is especially important at this year’s Annual Meeting. As you may have seen, Trian Partners L.P. and Trian Partners Parallel Fund I, L.P., wholly owned subsidiaries of Trian Fund Management, L.P., along with other entities affiliated with Nelson Peltz (collectively, the “Trian Group”), have nominated Nelson Peltz for election as a director at the Annual Meeting in opposition to the nominees recommended by your Board and to bring a proposal to amend our Bylaws before the meeting (the “Trian Group Proposal”).”
The message continues saying, “Your Board does not endorse Mr. Peltz (or his son) as a nominee and believes that his election would threaten our efforts to manage Disney for all shareholders. Over more than six months of engagement with Mr. Peltz, in both conversations and written materials, he has demonstrated that he does not understand Disney’s businesses and he lacks the perspective and experience to contribute to the objective of delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.
If you have already received materials with a blue proxy card from the Trian Group, please simply discard them and do not vote at this time.”
Disney added more context to its directions saying, “Mr. Peltz sought a board seat before he was a shareholder. We are skeptical of his motives and believe he would be disruptive at a crucial period for Disney.” Before reiterating that Peltz’ blue proxy card should be discarded, Disney continued saying” The Board is overseeing important strategic changes that our CEO Bob Iger is executing, such as putting more decision-making into the creative teams, implementing a cost reduction plan, prioritizing streaming profitability and improving the guest experience in our parks.”
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