The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is expected to come under pressure to grant board seats to Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management after the activist investor amassed a $2.5 billion stake in the company, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Trian has taken advantage of weakness in Disney’s share price this year to buy additional stock, taking its stake to more than 30 million shares from roughly 6.4 million at the end of March, the WSJ reported.
It would be Peltz’s second attempt to have himself added to the company’s board after Trian's January 2023 criticism of its management and the underperforming share price. He called off the first attempt after Disney announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs as part of a broader suite of cost-cutting measures totalling $5.5 billion, including $3 billion in content spend.
The window for shareholder nominations runs from December 5 to January 4, according to Disney’s proxy materials cited by the newspaper.
Disney’s shares traded 1.5% higher at $84.22 ahead of the opening bell on Monday. The stock has fallen 18% since early April.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com