Peltz, Disney proxy battle nears end ahead of shareholder vote

The proxy battle between activist investor Nelson Peltz and Disney (DIS) is nearing its conclusion this week, as Peltz vies for a board seat. Shareholders are casting their final votes ahead of Wednesday's stockholder meeting, when the final outcome is expected.

Yahoo Finance reporter Alexandra Canal breaks down the details, providing insight into the high-profile names who have shown support for each side and Disney's ongoing efforts to address issues within the company.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Disney's proxy battle is heating up. The fate of Disney's board will be determined this week following activist investor Nelson Peltz's month long battle for a boardroom shakeup. The results of the shareholder vote, they're expected to be announced at Disney's annual stockholders meeting Wednesday. For more on what we can expect, we've got Yahoo Finance's senior reporter Alexandra Canal. Hey, Allie.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Hey, Brad. That's right. We're entering the final days of this fight. Shareholders can continue to vote or change their vote until Wednesday. That's the day the polls close, and like you said, the day of that annual shareholder meeting. It's also possible that we could receive a last minute deal between Peltz and Disney.

But I do think he's going to want to take this to the finish line, especially since he's received some life into these final days of the campaign. According to a press release this morning, two institutional investors, the California Public Employees Retirement System along with global asset manager Neuberger Berman both expressed their support for Trian's nominees that includes Peltz along with former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo.

And notably, this does follow the pro-Peltz recommendation we heard from proxy advisory firms ISS and Egan-Jones. The ISS recommendation, in particular, really served as a turning point for Peltz. But we do have to remember that up to 40% of Disney shares are held by individual retail investors. And if you take a look at Disney's stock price since the start of the year, it's been a truly impressive run.

And in fact, for the first quarter alone, Disney was the best year-to-date Dow performer with the stock up 35%, hovering at record highs. For its part, Disney has won the support from proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis and has also received the backing from other high profile names like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Star Wars creator George Lucas among others. So both sides seemingly coming into this from a position of strength in different ways.

Disney has faced a lot of challenges, including slowing demand in its park business, a lack of profitability within streaming. We've also seen some underperformers at the box office but the company has taken steps to address some of these issues. There's been mass layoffs. There's been restructuring efforts. Disney has announced various partnerships like its deal with Epic Games along with password-sharing crackdowns, price hikes.

So all of that seems to be boosting the bullish sentiment on Wall Street and Main Street. But succession still serving as a big overhang, a big question mark moving forward. That's what Peltz has really hung his hat on when we think about this proxy campaign at large. So at this point, anything can really happen. It all goes down on Wednesday. That's the shareholder meeting, and it's going to be a big day for me and I know a big day for Yahoo Finance to keep an eye on.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. I mean, this proxy fight is even playing out in my LinkedIn feed now, Allie.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yes.

BRAD SMITH: So we'll see which side really gets the best of the shareholders' attention here. Allie, thanks so much for breaking this down. We're going to be watching this going into Wednesday.