Bob Iger can go back to work overhauling Disney now that activist investor Nelson Peltz has been dispatched, and the veteran CEO for one believes that’s a good thing for shareholders.
On Thursday, the company’s chief executive dismissed any notion that having a troublemaker on the board could sharpen management’s focus. In fact, just the opposite would have likely occurred, Iger insisted.
“I just didn’t think it was necessary to essentially bring Nelson Peltz onto the board, nor did the board feel that, given the fact that he didn’t bring any new ideas,” he told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview. “If anything, there was a belief it could be a distraction and end up being more destructive than productive.”
During Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting—over within an hour—the Trian Partners cofounder put forward his case for why he and former Disney finance chief Jay Rasulo should be elected to the board over Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman, whose seats they contested. The duo lost by what the company called a “substantial margin.”
Iger denied the victory was a personal one, but he did not dispute Faber’s assertion that he would have accelerated his departure plans had shareholders not placed their trust in the full slate of the board’s nominees.
Iger ignores Musk vendetta
“I’m back to where I was before all this happened, which is spending 100% of my time on this company, and I’ll just leave it at that,” Iger said.
The Disney boss also addressed the issue of Elon Musk’s vendetta against him after he led an exodus of advertisers off X late last year, pushing the social media company bought by the Tesla CEO one step closer to bankruptcy.
“I ignore it, there’s no relevance to the Walt Disney Company or to me,” Iger said. “People have been coming after me and the company for years. I don’t get distracted by those things.”
Musk, dubbed “ruthless” by his own sanctioned biographer, has gone after Iger ever since. It started with a now famous slew of expletives, continued with multiple calls for the board to sack him, and concluded with Musk promising to reward shareholders by buying Disney stock should Peltz be elected.
After listening to the interview with Iger, Peltz preferred not to divulge to CNBC’s Jim Cramer whether his next move would be to buy or sell the roughly 3.5 million Disney shares he manages. But he insists he won’t be going away, and promised to return if the business didn’t turn around and the stock price dropped again.
“I hope Bob can keep his promises; I hope they can do all the things they assured us they were going to do,” he said. “If they don’t, you’ll see me again, Jim.”