Disney has had plenty of battles to fight in the past few years — with everyone from Florida’s Governor to church leaders to activist investors.
Now a new group of Disney investors has made its fight for control of the company official — and if they get their way, they would split The Walt Disney Company up.
You may have heard about Nelson Peltz and his Trian Partners investment group that tried to win company board seats last year before dropping their proxy bid, only to start up their campaign again this year. But now, it’s a 3-way fight.
Blackwells Capital filed its definitive proxy statement with the Securities & Exchange Commission today, officially launching a campaign to win three board seats. “The purpose of our campaign is simple: we want to ensure that Disney has the right collection of minds around the boardroom table, working constructively together to make decisions that will benefit ALL shareholders for decades to come,” the statement said.
The plan Blackwells lays out involves separating Disney’s real estate into a publicly-traded Real Estate Investment Trust. Blackwells says the real estate Disney owns accounts for 44% of its market cap (or 44% of the company’s worth on the open market).
Blackwells says its three nominees for Disney’s board — Jessica Schell, Craig Hatkoff, and Leah Solivan — have expertise in three areas the board needs: media and content; real estate and strategic asset review; and physical, spatial computing, and AI-driven experiences. And that the company needs to be looked at “with cold eyes” and potentially split up into three publicly traded companies. Blackwells proposal questions the ability of any successor to current Disney CEO Bob Iger to manage the entire company “holistically.”
Blackwells has launched a web site that lays out their campaign at thefutureofdisney.com.
The Trian Partners and Blackwells Capital campaigns are opposed by Disney. In a statement earlier this week, Disney said, “Disney’s Board of Directors urges shareholders to protect their investment and the future of the Company by voting the WHITE proxy card for only Disney’s 12 nominees and not the Trian Group or Blackwells nominees.”
Disney’s annual shareholder meeting has been scheduled for April 3. Stay tuned to Allears.net for the latest on this continuing story.
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
They lost me when I read that sentence about the ‘right people’ on the BOD. That terrifies me.