Disney emerges victorious in proxy fight against activist investors

Investing.com -- Disney emerged victorious in the long-drawn battle for board seats against activist investors including Nelson Peltz’s hedge fund, Trian Fund Management and Blackwells Capital after shareholders voting in favor of retaining a slew of current board members.

Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, one of Disney's biggest shareholders was seeking to win two board seats, while another one of the firm's investors Blackwells Capital was seeking three board seats. Following a tally of the vote, preliminary results showed that shareholders backed all 12 of Disney's board members by a "substantial margin," Disney said.

Trian in a statement expressed disappointed in the results, but said it appreciated “the support and dialogue we have had with Disney stakeholders.”

Leading up to the vote on Wednesday, BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) and T. Rowe Price, which have about 4% and 0.5% stake in the firm, respectively, backed Disney's slew of board members, ending a long-running battle that paves the way for chief executive Bob Igor to continue with the turnaround of Disney. Igor has restructed the company into three separate divisions and unveiled measures to curb costs and boost growth by licensing more titles to competitors.

“With the distracting proxy contest now behind us, we’re eager to focus 100% of our attention on our most important priorities: growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in a statement.

Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was down about 2% in recent trading.

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