Bob Iger may get back to work on the Disney overhaul now that activist investor Nelson Peltz has been dispatched, and the veteran CEO, for one, believes that’s a good thing for shareholders.
On Thursday, the company’s CEO dismissed any notion that having a troublemaker on the board would sharpen management’s focus. In reality, just the opposite would probably happen, Iger insisted.
“I just didn’t think it was necessary to bring Nelson Peltz onto the board, nor did the board think so given that he hadn’t brought any new ideas,” he told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview. “If anything, it was believed that it could be a distraction and end up being more destructive than productive.”
During Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting, which took place within an hour, the Trian Partners co-founder made his case for why he and former Disney finance chief Jay Rasulo should be elected to the council in place of Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman, whose seats they had contested. The duo lost by what the company called a “substantial margin.”
Iger denied that the victory was personal, but did not dispute Faber’s assertion that he would accelerate his exit plans if shareholders did not place their trust in the board’s entire slate of candidates.
Iger ignores Musk’s revenge
“I’m back to where I was before all this happened, which is to dedicate 100% of my time to this company and I’m going to leave it at that,” Iger said.
The Disney boss also addressed the issue of Elon Musk’s revenge against Iger after he led an exodus of advertisers from X late last year, pushing the social media company bought by the Tesla CEO one step closer to bankruptcy.
“I ignore it, it has no relevance to the Walt Disney Company or to me,” Iger said. “People have been harassing me and the company for years. I don’t get distracted by these things.
Musk, dubbed “ruthless” by his own biographer, has pursued Iger ever since. It started with a now-famous string of expletives, continued with multiple calls for the board to be fired, and ended with Musk promising to reward shareholders by buying Disney stock if Peltz was elected.
After hearing the interview with Iger, Peltz declined to tell CNBC’s Jim Cramer whether his next move would be to buy or sell the approximately 3.5 million Disney shares he manages. But he insists he won’t leave and promised to return if business didn’t change and the share price fell again.
“I hope Bob can keep his promises, I hope they can do all the things they assured us they would do,” he said. “If they don’t, you’ll see me again, Jim.”