Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, speaks throughout the grand opening event of Shanghai Disney Resort’s Zootopia- themed tourist attraction at Shanghai Disney Resort on December 19, 2023 in Shanghai, China.
Visual China Group|Getty Images
Disney’s biggest investor, index fund supervisor Vanguard, prepares to support management over Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners in Wednesday’s board vote, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, pointing out unnamed individuals knowledgeable about the matter.
Institutional investors have till Wednesday to alter their vote. Vanguard owns 7.8% of Disney shares. BlackRock, Disney’s second-largest investor with 4.2% of shares, is likewise supporting the incumbent board and CEO Bob Iger, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The reporting on how Disney’s biggest investors are apparently voting triggered severe criticism from one-time activist financier Bill Ackman on Tuesday night.
“Only the company and its advisors have access to how shareholders have voted before the day of the annual meeting,” Ackman wrote on social networks platform X. “The reason why the progress of an election for directors must be kept confidential until the results are final is that leaking the results can affect the ultimate outcome.”
Disney investors need to support Peltz’s efforts, Ackman composed, both since he would be “greatly additive” to Disney and since the media leakages, which Ackman declared originated from Disney or its consultants, raised the concern of why management was “fighting so hard to keep him off.”
It would be a substantial blow to Peltz’s aspirations to sign up with Disney’s board if both BlackRock and Vanguard relocate to back the media business’s prospects. That would leave just State Street and Geode Capital Management, the business’s 3rd- and fourth-largest investors respectively, as unknowns.
Through a plan with previous Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter, Trian manages 1.8% of Disney shares, making it the 5th biggest investor. Retail financiers have till 11: 59 p.m. ET Tuesday to send their vote by phone or online.
Trian has actually won assistance from other, smaller sized investors, consisting of Neuberger Berman and CalPERS. For its part, Disney has actually hired a few of the most popular names in the business and media world, consisting of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Star Wars developer George Lucas.
Disney’s investor conference starts Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET.
Vanguard decreased to comment to CNBC.
Read the complete Bloomberg report here.
