Disney Fends Off Nelson Peltz After Bitter Proxy Fight As Shareholders Back Company Board

Disney has succeeded in keeping Nelson Peltz off its board of directors as more shareholders at the company’s hotly anticipated annual meeting today voted for the company’s nominees that for the two candidates put forward by Peltz’ investment firm Trian — Peltz himself and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo

Voting closed last night and the result, following a bitter and expensive proxy, is certainly a major relief to Disney and CEO Bob Iger, who have insisted for months that Peltz brought nothing new to the table strategically and would just be a distraction for management at complex time in the media and entertainment industry and, a delicate moment for the company, which is in the midst of a turnaround. It also slammed Peltz’ ties with Ike Perlmutter, who contributed his significant stake in Disney to Trian’s efforts. The company said the alliance was a conflict of interest since the businessman who sold Marvel to Disney had clashed with Iger and was fired.

Peltz pushed back on all that. His best argument was succession.

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