Walt Disney Co. rejected Nelson Peltz’s bid for a seat on its board, along with the activist’s nomination of ex-finance chief Jay Rasulo, saying the investor lacked new ideas and its former executive has been away from the media business for too long, Bloomberg reports.
Disney has had no less than 20 “meaningful” interactions with Peltz since the Trian Fund Management founder dropped an earlier push for a board seat last February, the company said in a filing Tuesday.
Those meetings included a Nov. 19 sit down in New York between Peltz and Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and a Nov. 21 phone call. During the call, Peltz “offered no strategic insights or proposed courses of action to address his concerns,” Disney said.
The board said Rasulo’s perspective on the media industry is “stale” after being away for eight years. His position as lead director at radio station operator iHeartMedia Inc. has “not produced strong returns,” according to Disney, which said his “outdated perspective on the business would be damaging to the ongoing strategic transformation underway.”
Over the past two years, Peltz has criticized Disney for its spending, its succession planning and its decision to suspend its dividend.
Disney also criticized Rasulo’s close ties to Ike Perlmutter, the former Marvel Entertainment chairman who was fired by Iger last year, saying it would inhibit his ability to work with the company.
Perlmutter supported Rasulo’s efforts to succeed Iger until he was passed over for the chief operating officer position in 2015, Disney said.
Perlmutter has been lobbying for Peltz’s appointment to the board and pledged his billions of dollars worth of Disney stock to bolster Trian’s stake to roughly $3 billion.
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