Activist investor Nelson Peltz, the 81-year-old founder of the multibillion-dollar hedge fund Trian Partners, released a 133-page presentation Tuesday explaining what he would push if he won a seat on Disney’s board of directors at its April 3 conference. annual meeting. Peltz owns $3 billion in Disney stock.
One change Peltz suggests on the corporate governance side is for Disney to provide shareholders with numbers on how business unit leaders are compensated. Peltz also wants to revamp Disney’s organizational structure, but acknowledged that it is “impossible to fully understand how to best improve the current structure from the outside.”
When it comes to streaming, Peltz asks for clarity on how Disney plans to retain subscribers on streaming services while making that part of the business profitable. Disney raised prices for Disney+ and Hulu in October and introduced a Hulu tile within Disney+ in December to boost bundled subscriptions.
In the presentation, Peltz makes a case for fully integrating Disney+ and Hulu into one product and evaluating whether Hulu Live is a good product to offer.
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Nelson Peltz, founder and CEO of Trian Fund Management. Photographer: Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Peltz also takes issue with Disney’s performance at the box office: “Disney’s recent animated films have generated less demand at the box office and have cost significantly more to produce,” the presentation reads.
Disney reported stellar earnings in February, with earnings of $1.91 billion, up 49% from the same period a year earlier. Disney also highlighted an increase of 1.2 million Hulu subscribers compared to the previous quarter.
Disney CEO Bob Iger, who Peltz personally denounced in the report for his close personal relationship with Disney’s board of directors, said in March that he is “working very hard to not let this distract me.”
Peltz sought a seat on the board of directors last year but scrapped the effort after Iger announced a multibillion-dollar plan to cut costs in technology, marketplace, content and workforce. In March, Disney implemented layoffs affecting 7,000 people.
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Members of the Disney family have been critical of Peltz, as film producer and activist Abigail Disney recounted New York Times that, although he has had disagreements with Bob Iger, “I know for a fact that the worst thing that could happen to the company is Nelson Peltz.”
Grandchildren of Roy O. Disney and Walt E. Disney, including Abigail, signed open letters last week made clear support for Iger and his leadership.
“What concerns us most about these hedge fund-backed opportunists is that they have little to no understanding of what Disney really means to people like you,” one letter reads. “They made no argument as to why they should be entrusted with the keys to the kingdom our family built.”
Meanwhile, Peltz’s daughter, Nicola Peltz Beckham, is an actress who made her directorial debut in February.