Nelson Peltz (Unilever PR pic)
Nelson Peltz, the billionaire activist investor, is now looking to get himself a seat on the board of Disney. The head of Trian Fund Management is in the middle of a proxy fight with the entertainment company. Trian reportedly owns roughly 9.4 million shares of Disney that are currently valued at about $900 million. But Disney does not want Peltz on its board.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Nelson Peltz cited Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019 as an example of a mistake that he feels the company made and said that Disney’s shareholder value has eroded in recent years.
“Fox hurt this company. Fox took the dividend away. Fox turned what was once a pristine balance sheet into a mess,” Nelson Peltz told CNBC. And Trian has gone on record that it feels Disney “lost its way resulting in a rapid deterioration in its financial performance.”
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On his chances of getting on the Disney board Nelson Peltz said, “I don’t need to overwhelm them. I don’t need [the support of] more than one person on the board. I just need to speak reasonably to these people and explain to them where they went wrong or what opportunities they’re missing.”
Nelson Peltz is Chief Executive Officer and a Founding Partner of Trian Fund Management, L.P. (“Trian”), an investment management firm. He has previously served on the Boards of several major global consumer goods companies, including The Procter & Gamble Company, H.J. Heinz Company and Mondelēz International. Nelson Peltz currently serves as Non-Executive Chairman of The Wendy’s Company and on the Boards of Janus Henderson Group Plc and Madison Square Garden Sports Corp.
Nelson Peltz also just so happens to be the father-in-law of Brooklyn Beckham the son of soccer star David Beckham and former Spice Girl Victoria Adams. Beckham is married to Peltz’s daughter the movie star Nicola Peltz who is best known for her performances in movies such as “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and “The Last Airbender.”
