Yahoo Finance Disney 2024 Shareholders Meeting Live Blog: Bob Iger Talks The Future Of Disney Following Bitter Proxy Fight
It's been a complicated year for The Walt Disney Company. Bob Iger's return at the end of 2022 was celebrated, but 2023 was a rough year for Disney at the box office. This led to a proxy fight on two fronts with different organizations battling to get seats on Disney's board of directors. While big names like George Lucas came out in support of Bob Iger, it was a real question of what would happen. Today's meeting will give us a result, and may also give us a peek behind the curtain at what Disney has planned going forward.
The early word being reported by various outlets is that Disney has been successful in the proxy fight, and its 12 chosen members of the Board of Directors have retained their seats. Still, some number of votes will be cast at the meeting itself, so nothing is official until the voting is done.
The meeting is called to order via a pre-recorded(?) message by Marc Parker, also executive chairman of Nike, the Chairman of the Board of directors. The polls are open for those voting at the meeting.
Horacio Gutierrez is going through the voting rules, going through largely boilerplate language. He lists the 12 Disney nominees, as well as the Trian Group and Blackwells Group nominees and proposals.
Nelson Peltz has 3 minutes to speak on behalf of Trian Group and make the group's case for why their nominees should be elected to the BoD. He says they have "great concerns" about Disney going forward, says long term track record is "disappointing" despite recent growth.
Peltz seems to be giving a concession speech. He thanks those that helped in the fight. He doesn't make an argument in his favor.
The Blackwell Group will not be speaking, so that ends the discussion of the Board in the meeting. We'll have to wait for the votes, but it seems clear Disney has come out on top.
Gutierrez is now going through the various motions in front of the board. The first shareholder proposal is that the BoD get shareholder approval for certain "golden parachutes" given to executives who leave the company. This is likely in response to Chapek's separation deal, which was reportedly quite lucrative for him.
The next shareholder motion asks for "accountability" not just reporting, on political donations. It points out that Disney gave money to Florida politicians who then sided against the company in the battle between Disney and Governor Ron DeSantis.
Next shareholder proposal regards requiring a report on gender transitioning compensation and benefit. The proposal after that requires a "publication of receipts of charitable contributions. But the statement being given is clearly politically motivated.
The next two proposals come from Trian and Blackwell. There will be no statement on those. Final votes are being filed, and the polls are closed.
Gutierrez says that based on tabulation the Disney slate has been fully voted in "by a substantial margin." All proposals fell in line with Disney's desires. Board proposals passed, all stockholder proposals failed. Final numbers will be submitted with the meeting's official minutes.
We get a cool Disney sizzle reel showing off all the elements of Disney, before shifting to a Bob Iger message recorded at Disneyland
Iger stars with film and TV discussion. Talks about the success of the company during awards season, spotlighting Emma Stone and Poor Things. Goes over this year's film slate. We get a new look at Inside Out 2 as well.
got some artwork from Moana 2 and "official" confirmation that Dwayne Johnson and Carvalho will both reprise their roles. Shifting to TV, we get a new clip of The Bear Season 3.
Moving to ESPN, celebrating the expanded college football playoff, which ESPN will have the right for into the next decade. Iger also mentions the sports streaming service being done with WB and Fox. Fall of 2025 is the date for all ESPN channels to be available fully online. Will be bundled with Disney+.
Disney+ still on track to profitability at the end of this fiscal year.
Shifting to Experiences. Iger brings up Epic Games partnership. Then moves to Parks. Talks about last year's success, World of Frozen in Hong Kong, Zootopia in Shanghai, and this year's Fantasy Springs coming to Tokyo.
Iger mentions the Avatar experience at Disneyland, but all we get is some concept art. No real info on what it is.
Iger wrapping up statement. We thought we might get an official opening date for Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World, but it doesn't look like it.
Bob Iger now speaking live, thanking shareholders for supporting Disney. Now we move to the Q&A which is always...interesting...
Interestingly, the questions were submitted ahead of time, and are not being read live by shareholders, which likely means we won't get the usual collection of weird ass questions we usually get from individuals who usually have very specific questions. First question is a general question about Iger's view of the future.
Question asks about return of perks and other things that used to be part of Parks experience but no longer are. Following question asks about Disney's response to Epic Universe. Iger says Disney is responding, points out what Disney has done over the course of the last decade, while Universal was planning Epic Universe. Says staggering new additions was the better way to do it. Also says the deal with CFTOD will make Disney better able to do more going forward.
Question about Disney appealing to older audiences. Mentions new Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulus as well as Deadpool & Wolverine, which Iger (again) confirms will be rated-R.
Question about specific plans for new Parks investments. Iger is ensures that they know what some of these projects will be. Doesn't indicate when we'll hear anything more specific.
Final question: Will we get more Taylor Swift concerts on Disney+? Iger says they want to continue their great relationship with her, but doesn't announce anything. And that concludes the meeting.
A little disappointing that we didn't get any major announcements during the meeting. In the past we have. It's possible that considering the fact this meeting could have gone a very different way, they didn't want to announce anything significant alongside what would have been much bigger news if there had been a major change in the Board of Directors.
Regardless, Disney now has that battle behind them and can focus on other things. The question will be what will they focus on.
