What’s scheduled for Wednesday?

At Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, which begins at 1 pm ET, shareholders will cast their ballots for the “slates” of board member positions, which include Trian and Blackwells.Then the results of the voting, which is currently taking place, will be made public.

Disney’s nominees might be replaced by Peltz and Rasulo if they are successful in winning up to two seats on the board. The two might therefore affect the course of the business and, according to some experts, expedite Iger’s early exit. Iger took back the reins in 2022 following the removal of his hand-picked replacement, Bob Chapek.

Despite having no prior experience in entertainment, Peltz has conducted successful proxy wars in the past and has stated in interviews that he wants to collaborate with the existing leadership to challenge the media behemoth.

“We want to see that this business performs at last.” It’s been mistreated for a very long time, and that needs to change,” Peltz said in a video on Trian’s website for the proxy battle.

In what ways is Disney retaliating?

Shareholder meetings and these votes are usually dull affairs that receive very little public attention.

However, Disney is considering the situation carefully. Disney has contributed the majority of the $60 million that has been invested in the boardroom battle, which is aimed at retaining Iger and the board in place.

Disney and its backers claim that Iger is already bringing about a turnaround and that the Trian proxy war is partly the result of personal resentment following Perlmutter’s termination from the firm last year.

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However, it faces a special difficulty in convincing shareholders: Several of its investors are “retail investors,” or regular people who make investments in businesses, in contrast to other publicly traded companies.

These people own more than 35% of Disney’s shares, which gives them significant voting power. Disney has been approaching the campaign as though it were a political one, establishing a website for it, placing advertisements on Google searches, and placing ads on well-known podcasts like “Smartless.”Even some of its most well-known animation characters are being used.

Crockett stated, “They’ve really gone all out in responding to Nelson Peltz and the other activists, disparaging and attacking them on a number of fronts, even going so far as to remove Disney intellectual property and refer to Peltz as a ‘Pinocchio.'”

The characters Anna and Elsa from the animated film “Frozen” have also been featured on materials sent to shareholders. Ludwig Von Drake, a relatively unknown figure, hosted a little animated video that explains the voting process.

In a statement released last week, the company defended its choice of board members, saying, “Disney has the right strategy to drive profitable growth and value creation for shareholders and has made substantial progress against our objectives to make our business more efficient and effective, including a sharpened focus on our greatest brand and franchise assets, a continued commitment to cutting costs, and a reinstatement of the dividend.”