Disney Finally Gets Activist Investor Off Its Back

Last month, the "most expensive corporate proxy fight in history" ended for Nelson Peltz without the seats on Disney's board that he'd hoped for. Now, the activist investor is dumping all of his stock in the company: A source tells CNBC that Peltz has sold off his entire stake in Disney for about $120 a share, yielding him about $1 billion. Yahoo Finance notes that at one point, Peltz's hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, had its hands on about $3 billion in shares, including the shares of ex-Marvel Entertainment chief Ike Perlmutter.

In October, Trian boosted its Disney stake to 30 million shares or so, and Peltz launched his proxy war that sought to have himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo placed on Disney's board. Peltz wasn't thrilled on multiple fronts with Disney, including on its streaming game plan and tepid share prices under CEO Bob Iger, whom Peltz said the board treated "with too much reverence," per Deadline. However, at Disney's April shareholder meeting, the board voted to keep the current board intact. Disney shares are up between 11% and 12% in 2024, though Yahoo notes that they've fallen 15% since the proxy war ended. (More Nelson Peltz stories.)