Michael Eisner Backs Disney CEO Iger Amid Board Fight With Activist Investors: ‘The Company Is Now in Excellent Hands’
Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO who exited the company in 2005, is the latest member of the extended Disneyverse to weigh in with support for current chief exec Bob Iger, who’s facing a proxy fight with activist investors including Nelson Peltz in a vote for board candidates at Disney’s April 3 annual shareholders meeting.
“[I]n 1983, Disney was under attack by corporate raiders trying to take over the company,” Eisner wrote in a post on X, referring to the unsuccessful attempt by financier Saul Steinberg to stage a hostile takeover of the company. “That would have ended the Disney Company as we know it, for the studio, theme parks, and hotels were suggested to be sold off. The board turned to me and [then-president] Frank Wells, and a different story was written, one that was continued by Bob Iger and his executive team.”
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Eisner continued, “Today, a similar situation exists, so let’s remember the lessons from 40 years ago. Bringing in someone who doesn’t have experience in the company or the industry to disrupt Bob and his eventual successor is playing not only with fire but earthquakes and hurricanes as well. The company is now in excellent hands and Disney shareholders should vote for the Disney slate.”
Eisner was appointed CEO of Disney in 1984. He announced plans to step down from the role in 2004 before officially resigning in September 2005.
During Disney’s 2024 annual shareholders meeting next month, investors will vote on rival board candidate slates — Disney’s own 12-member lineup; two nominated by Peltz’s Trian Partners (Peltz himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo); or three from investment firm Blackwells Capital.
In the weeks leading up to the April 3 meeting, Disney and Iger have received the backing of George Lucas (Disney’s largest individual shareholder) and the grandchildren of Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney, as well as proxy-advisory firm Glass Lewis.
On Thursday, in a setback for Disney in its spat with Peltz, ISS — a proxy-advisory firm influential among institutional shareholders — recommended that shareholders elect Peltz to the Disney board. In its report, ISS cited Disney’s “failed” CEO succession planning with regard to the surprise ouster of Bob Chapek and Iger’s return in November 2022, commenting that Peltz “could be additive to the succession process, providing assurance to other investors that the board is properly engaged this time around.” (Disney chairman Mark Parker responded that “we strongly believe that ISS reached the wrong conclusion.”)
Meanwhile, Laurene Powell Jobs, who is another major Disney shareholder, this week issued a statement of support for the current board and Iger that said in part, “My family and I have been significant investors in The Walt Disney Company for nearly two decades, and in that time, we have seen the company transformed thanks to the steady and visionary leadership of Bob Iger and Disney’s expert board of directors.”
Powell Jobs’ statement continued, “There is no one who understands Disney’s important legacy or the responsibility to protect it more than Bob Iger. He is a once-in-a-generation leader with an ambitious vision for the future, and we as shareholders are fortunate to have him guiding this cherished company at such a crucial moment in its history. I urge my fellow shareholders to support Bob and the company’s slate of highly qualified director nominees.” Powell Jobs is the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. After his death in 2011, the Disney shares owned by Steve Jobs, from the Mouse House’s 2006 $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar, were transferred to a trust run by Powell Jobs. In 2017, she reduced her Disney stake in half.
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