Disney Shareholder Blackwells Capital Blasts Rival Nelson Peltz For Failing To Come Up With “A Single Strategic Idea That Would Benefit Shareholders”

Blackwells Capital, a Disney shareholder with plenty of opinions about who should sit on the company’s board of directors, blasted the rival Trian Group for its own board maneuvering.

In a press release, Blackwells Chief Investment Officer Jason Aintabi said Trian co-founder Nelson Peltz has come up short in terms of suggestions for righting the media giant’s ship. Trian this month formally initiated a proxy war with Disney, nominating Peltz and former Disney CFO Jim Rasulo to the board, planning to solicit support from a shareholder base restless with the company’s lackluster stock performance.

Trian has attacked Disney’s path under CEO Bob Iger, who returned to the top exec role in November 2022 in a bid to shore up the company after it slipped under his hand-picked successor, Bob Chapek. The company has faced a host of operational challenges, some of them universal among traditional media players and some of Disney’s own creation, with stumbles at Pixar and Marvel belonging to the latter category. Trian has also criticized the company’s stewardship of ESPN, the sports powerhouse that has steadily lost video subscribers and is seeking outside investors ahead of a leap into stand-alone streaming.

Despite having had at least two dozen formal interactions with Disney, Aintabi said, “Mr. Peltz has not offered a single strategic idea that would benefit shareholders. Astoundingly, Mr. Peltz recently claimed that he would like ‘a guy who doesn’t have media experience’ on the Disney board. We remind Mr. Peltz that Disney is a significant media company and, now more than any time in its history, needs Board members with deep media experience.”

Blackwells last Friday nominated three of its own candidates for Disney’s board: Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff; former major studio executive Jessica Schell; and Leah Solivan, former CEO of the tech firm TaskRabbit. In addition to touting its nominees, the Blackwells press release also criticized Disney for entering into an information-sharing agreement with shareholder ValueAct.

“Showering one shareholder with information that is withheld from all other shareholders will only make matters worse,” Aintabi said.

MORE to come …