There’s been A LOT of talk lately about positions for chairs on The Walt Disney Company board and it doesn’t seem like it’s stopping any time soon.
Recently, two nominations were thrown into the mix of candidates by proxy to establish seats on the board which sparked a battle over proxy votes vieing for these seats. However, it doesn’t seem that Trian Partners is ready to sit down quietly just yet and let the votes fall where they will — and they’ve got a whole argument of suggestions outlined over 133 pages of changes they’re ready to make at Disney.
Trian Partners released a new memo outlining some changes they would make following Disney and Iger’s “failures”. If that name isn’t as familiar to you, you may be more familiar with its founder, Nelson Peltz, who is currently running for a seat on the board at The Walt Disney Company along with another ally nominee Jay Rasulo. Disney has said that they do not endorse these nominations.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, continuing an ongoing proxy fight with Disney, Trian Partners published a 133-page paper outlining changes it would make to the company to ensure future success while also accusing Disney’s current board of being “the root cause of Disney’s underperformance.”
One of Trian’s main suggestions is to “right-size” Disney’s studio business and its coupled TV networks. “We believe that it is unlikely that Disney can realize its full potential if it refuses to sufficiently right-size expenses in legacy businesses that are growth challenged,” Trian states in the pages. They take this idea a step further and suggest finding strategic partners for Disney’s various TV networks under the belief that it would improve corporate spending levels, and “improve morale… by giving management and employees more control over their destiny,” in speaking of the various Disney TV networks.
Trian also believes that Disney+ and Hulu should be one entity from which to stream content and to ensure future success, Disney should open more opportunities to bundle its content with other media companies.
Trian also says Disney should make fewer movie sequels. In their opinion, “Sequels are less risky film ventures to produce, but do not drive long-term benefits in the same way that new IP can.”
Disney’s response to this has been to educate voters in the upcoming election to be held during the April 3rd annual meeting. Additionally, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger also used the February earnings call to announce a slew of new exciting projects that included an animated Moana sequel, and a $1.5 billion deal with Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite.) To strengthen the fight against the Trian nominees to the board, the grandchildren of both Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney have also written letters in support of Iger in the battle for the chairman seats.
It will certainly be interesting to see how this continues to play out ahead of next month’s vote. Be sure to stay tuned with us at All Ears for the latest updates on this and more!
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What do you think about this new update? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
So let’s see….an old white man….decides what WE….the longtime solid Disney fans…want?? Seriously? How often does he go…on vacation…to WDW? Howoften does he watch Disney movies ( I’m 75 and have them on DVR)
All I can say is that group is right. Some sequels don’t need to happen. I believe live act Moana should not happen or Toy Story 5 should not happen either.