It’s no secret that Disney has pretty much destroyed much of their credibility in the last 10 years. The disastrous mismanagement of Star Wars, the ill-advised injection of political opinions into a Florida law causing them to lose massive amounts of money in tax credits, and the takeover of creative properties by activists who have not been secretive about their agenda to sexualize children’s properties.
Needless to say, the mantra of “Go Woke, Go Broke” has never been more appropriate. Enter Trian Partners and their champion, Nelson Peltz. They have created the website Restore The Magic and make their case why Bob Iger needs to go as well as a complete change of direction, or else there may not be a Disney to save.
The financials make a compelling case. From ~190.00 dollars a share to 95.56 is catastrophic.
Worse, the cash flow and dividend performance are now nearly non-existent. You want to tick off shareholders? Destroying their dividends is a sure fire way to do it.
Finally look at the performance against the S&P 500. It’s consistently underperformed over the long term. This is not sustainable.
The movement is to convince shareholders to vote Nelson Peltz onto the board of directors, who will then have a vote of no confidence on current leadership. For those of you thinking maybe Bob Iger was a return to greatness, make no mistake this decline all started under his leadership. Bob Chapek weakly attempted to make Disney non-political but folded faster than Bob Chapek attempting to make Disney non-political.
I know what I typed. Still Iger and the woke brigade is not going down without a fight.
Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz has fired the next shot in his proxy war against Disney, ask shareholders to withhold votes for a longtime board member and vote for him instead.
Peltz, the founder of Trian Management, filed paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission submitting a request for a seat at the Mickey Mouse table and launched a campaign across social media.
He has argued that the company has wasted money over the past few years while battling a super-woke reputation that is turning families off, resulting in a $120billion loss for shareholders over the past year.
Disney executives tried to fight back, saying Peltz does not understand the entertainment business.
But the 80-year-old investor apparently has not given up, releasing an open letter to Disney shareholders on Thursday asking them to vote for him rather than longtime board member Michael BG Froman.
Oh. “He doesn’t understand the entertainment business?” I think he understands at the very least to not make things designed to insult your core customer base. Elsewhere on the internet, The Critical Drinker went over this in some detail:
His final point is correct. Disney should not die, it should get fixed. Disney is an American institution with a long history and back catalog of undeniable classics. It’s failure would be a massive blow in more ways than one. Disney cruises, parks, television channels, streaming, movies, and more. Lot of people are directly or indirectly employed because Disney exists.
But it does need the adults to assert themselves. Peltz is a multi billionaire with a history of making companies profitable. He’s not woke, he’s not anti-woke… well maybe he is, I dunno. That’s a good thing that I don’t know. He does know what failing and succeeding is, and Disney is definitely failing.
Trying to win over the shareholders, Peltz — who is worth $1.4billion and currently owns 0.5 percent of Disney through his firm Trian Partners — writes that ‘earnings per share have declined an astounding 50 percent since 2019 because costs have ballooned, even as Disney generated 41 percent more in revenue.’
At the same time, he said, the share price has plummeted 44 percent in 2022.
‘For a company with so many advantages — unparalleled consumer loyalty and access, valuable intellectual property, renowned brands, an enviable library of content and a talented and engaged workforce — it is disappointing and simply unacceptable that shareholders have suffered so much,’ he said.
‘We cannot sit idly by,’ the letter continues. ‘And we hope you will not either.
‘If shareholders like us and you remain passive, without demanding more accountability and an ownership mentality in the boardroom, why shouldn’t we expect the stock to do anything other than fall back to another eight-year-low?
You’ll note on the website there is no mention of “wokeness” or politics or anything like that. They don’t want to dwell on why it’s failing, only that it is and solutions must be presented. Those in charge now don’t have those solutions.
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