Trian Opens Proxy Fight With Disney; We Believe Peltz Could Add Value as a Board Member

Nelson Peltz and his fund, Trian Partners, kicked off a proxy fight with Disney over a board seat for the activist investor. The fund is concerned about numerous perceived issues at Disney, including weak governance, financial underperformance, and poor capital allocation. We suspect that the decision to offer a board seat to Third Point in September pushed the board to resist adding another activist to the lineup. Outside of handing Peltz his desired board seat, we believe this proxy fight was basically inevitable.