Ike Perlmutter has sold his entire stake in Disney after he and activist Nelson Peltz lost a proxy fight.
Perlmutter, the former Marvel chairman, had banded with Peltz to try to win two seats on Disney’s board of directors. Peltz launched his activist campaign in January and nominated himself and Rasulo to be board members of Disney. Perlmutter had pledged his shares to Peltz as part of the proxy battle.
After campaigning on both sides, Disney won the shareholders vote in April, with Nelson Peltz only securing about 30 percent of the vote he sought for his board seat and Rasulo losing his vote by a margin of five-to-one.
Since then, Perlmutter has sold his entire stake in Disney of 25.6 million shares, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for Perlmutter declined to comment.
At the end of May, Peltz also reportedly disposed of his entire stake in Disney, which was worth $1 billion.
In his proxy fight, Peltz had taken aim at Disney’s then-flagging stock price and released a 130-page whitepaper outlining changes he wanted to make at the company, which included having Disney achieve Netflix-like margins in streaming.
Perlmutter, a friend and Palm Beach Neighbor to Peltz, had been ousted from the company in March 2023. He had been begun butting heads with Iger even earlier, including in 2015, when Iger made it clear that Rasulo, who had been Perlmutter’s pick, would not take over as Disney CEO. The two had also reportedly butted heads over the making of films such as Black Panther, according to Iger’s biography.
