Nelson Peltz ends his fight for a Disney board seat after the company agrees to make 7,000 job cuts
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BREAKING NEWS: Nelson Peltz declares a ‘huge victory’ over Bob Iger as Disney CEO agrees to resign within two years and as embattled entertainment giant cuts 7,000 jobs to save $5.5bn
- The CEO of the entertainment giant made the announcement on Thursday morning.
- Iger returned to run the company in November Bob Chapek was fired
- Activist investor Nelson Peltz said he would end his bid for a company board seat after 7,000 job cuts were announced Wednesday.
Billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz declared Thursday morning that his proxy fight with Disney is over after the entertainment giant revealed it would cut billions of dollars in costs along with 7,000 jobs.
Along with Peltz’s announcement was a statement from current CEO Bob Iger that he will step down in two years.
On Thursday morning, Peltz told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that “Disney plans to do everything we wanted them to do,” calling the end of their activist battle a “huge victory.”
‘We wish Bob the best [Iger], this management team and the board of directors. we will be attentive. We will be supporting,” said Peltz, who heads Trian Fund Management.
The Iger news was also delivered via CNBC. He told the outlet that his plan is to “stay here for two years, that’s what my contract says, that was my agreement with the board, and that’s my preference.”
Trian Fund Management founder Nelson Peltz said Thursday that his fight for a seat on Disney’s board of directors is over.
Last month, Trian launched a proxy fight with Disney, pushing for Peltz to get a seat on the company’s board of directors.
At the time, the firm said it owned about 9.4 million shares valued at about $900 million, which it accumulated several months earlier.
Peltz had previously taken a critical stance against Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019, as well as its failed succession planning that resulted in Bob Chapek’s ouster and Iger’s second reign.
For the remainder of Iger’s tenure, he will be responsible for crafting a stronger succession plan than the one that left Chapek alone to oversee a period of turmoil at the company.
“We think we made the right decision when we chose Bob [Chapek] in 2020. The board decided in November that he was not the right person for the job and made a change,” Iger said, declining to comment further.
He added that a major focus of the company at the moment is the profitability of the company’s broadcast division, an aspect on which Peltz’s campaign was based.
The aforementioned 7,000 job cuts are designed to save the company up to $5.5 billion.
Investors have been largely pleased to see Iger return to the House of Mouse following a brief retirement from his role as CEO. Shares in the company have risen more than 20% since his return in November.
Iger criticized Peltz’s move on Thursday, saying the investor worth about $1.4 billion “hasn’t articulated any vision, or even ideas, that are of particular value to us.”
Iger returned to the helm of Disney in November after a brief departure