Has anyone else here been following the Nelson Peltz/Disney situation? It's been going on for a while, but has now been heating up with the possible involvement of Elon Musk.
Peltz's fund management company Trian holds about $3 billion of Disney stock, and he is appealing to other Disney shareholders who are displeased with how the company is being run to vote for himself and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo to replace Disney directors Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino in an upcoming Disney shareholder meeting. He is allied with former Marvel Studios CEO Ike Perlmutter (allegedly the mastermind behind the plan), who also owns a large amount of Disney stock.
Perlmutter is a fascinating individual, whose story I've been following for about 5 years. In a nutshell, he's a shrewd businessman who loathes Disney's tendency to put politics over profit, and (being a friend, neighbor, and major financial supporter of Donald Trump) also dislikes the company's leftist policies. He was ousted from his position of control over the MCU in 2015 by Kevin Feige and Bob Iger, as he was an obstacle to their plans to insert their preferred politics into the MCU. Not coincidentally, the MCU freefalled in terms of quality almost imediately afterward, then in profits a few years after that. Perlmutter has nursed a grudge against Bob Iger for nearly a decade now.
The plan is to get Peltz and Rasulo on Disney's board, and from there, leverage their positions to steer the entire ship in a different direction. They essentially want to do to Disney what Elon Musk did to Twitter, or as close to it as they can manage to achieve. Bob Iger (whose job is likely toast if the Peltz plan works) is doing everything within his power to combat Peltz, including launching a new website featuring a cartoon of Professor Ludwig Von Drake urging stockholders to vote for Disney's preferred slate of board nominees.
A few days ago, Elon Musk and Nelson Peltz were seen publicly together, and upon being asked what he was up to, Musk replied, "I'm just here with friends, thinking about companies to acquire." This has led to much speculation that he is joining in on the Peltz/Perlmutter Disney takeover plan in some way, possibly even as part of a plan to make him Disney's new owner. Musk also tweeted "Current Disney management is destroying the company. Time for change." about a week ago, and has recently been urging Gina Carano to file a lawsuit agaisnt Disney, She has now done so, and her lawsuit (which is funded by Musk) includes some details that are quite embarassing to Disney. The timing of this, as far as Musk is concerned, seems likely intended as a PR move to hurt Disney's optics with stockholders in advance of the upcoming vote.
Musk has been tweeting up a Disney-related storm today, including a tweet reading, "If you were discriminated against by Disney or its subsidiaries (ABC, ESPN, Marvel, etc), just reply to this post to receive legal support", posting a thinking face emoji in response to a tweet suggesting that he buy Disney, and more.
very interesting op. i hope it happens.