Disney won the vote against Nelson Peltz and will retain its board of directors. The entertainment giant has been fighting for months against the investor who tried to oust two directors, María Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman.
The company planned to dismiss these two senior officials due to the company's poor performance over the last year as well as the failed succession that ledto Bob Iger's return after Nelson Peltz and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo ousted Bob Chapek. However, the vote didn't go as planned. As The Hollywood Reporter learned, Lagomasino beat Peltz by a margin of "approximately two to one" while Rasulo "lost his vote by a margin of five to one."
What is clear is that 94% of voters want Bob Iger to remain CEO of The Walt Disney Company. He thanked the board after the preliminary vote was reported:
Thank you for your trust and confidence in the Disney project management, and the ambitious strategy we’re implementing across our businesses to build for the future. Now that this distracting proxy contest is behind us, we’re here to focus 100% of our attention on our most important priorities, growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers.
The woke agenda is Disney's main problem
Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Company is still facing several problems. Nelson Peltz pointed out that one problem is the company's woke agenda. For this reason, the investor said during the shareholders meeting that he wanted to be part of the company's board of directors:
All we want is for Disney to get back to making great content and delighting consumers and for Disney to create sustainable long-term value for all of its shareholders. We believe the board needs to continue to improve its focus alignment and accountability. And we hope it will.
The board of directors now needs to try and make back the more than $1 billion that the company lost last year. It also needs to improve its streaming services and continue searching for Bob Iger's successor who, in 2026, plans to leave the company. These challenges cast a shadow over Disney's centennial year, making it one of the company's darkest.
