Earlier today the Disney company won, and effectively ended, a proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz. The shareholder meeting then pivoted to looking forward at the company’s future, including possible concept art for an Avatar experience coming to Disneyland Resort. In this post, we’ll cover the news, share statements from Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro and add in our commentary.

I don’t often cover the business side of the Disney company. Frankly, there are better outlets to get that information. A brief summary of the situation is that Nelson Peltz’s hedge fund owns $3 billion in Disney common stock and vied for seats on the Disney Board. One of those seats would have been for himself and the other for Jay Rasulo. This led to a fairly hostile public proxy fight as the Disney Board had other recommended nominees.

Disney ultimately won the battle, with all 12 of their nominees elected. All of this has come in the wake of Bob Iger taking over (again) as CEO after Bob Chapek was ousted. Peltz pointed to drops in company production from a stockholder perspective as reasons for wanting to be on the board and eventually making major changes to the company.

Upon winning the latest battle Iger said, “I want to thank our shareholders for their trust and confidence in our Board and management. With the distracting proxy contest now behind us, we’re eager to focus 100% of our attention on our most important priorities: growth and value creation for our shareholders and creative excellence for our consumers.”

I’ll share my brief opinion on the fight before moving along. The reason it’s brief is because my opinions on any issues involving Disney stock and leadership is fairly reductive and simple – I want whatever will lead the company to spend the most on creative projects. I’m a Disney Parks fan and not a stockholder so there’s no reason for me to want them to do anything outside of spend money on the theme parks.

In this case, keeping Iger in charge and the board intact should lead to more money spent on the parks. I don’t know that for sure but with Disney pledging $60 billion over the next decade on projects and experiences, a change may have disrupted that. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ve liked everything Iger and his team have done. That’s far from the truth. But I’m optimistic about the coming years and hopeful that this proxy fight will light a fire under the Disney company in terms of investing in creativity.

Speaking of, Josh D’Amaro penned this post on the Disney Parks Blog following the shareholder meeting:

Earlier today during The Walt Disney Company Annual Meeting of Shareholders, our CEO Bob Iger shared some incredible updates from across the company … including an update at Disney Experiences that I am very excited about. 

We were thrilled to unveil a piece of inspirational artwork developed for a potential new Avatar experience at the Disneyland Resort. We are excited about the stories our guests could experience at Walt’s original theme park destination after approval of DisneylandForward – including the chance to experience all-new Avatar adventures with a visit to Pandora. 

Avatar is the latest example of how we are looking to create new and innovative ways to bring our powerful stories to life. Over the past decade, we’ve delivered massive, immersive experiences at our destinations around the world, including new lands and attractions based on Star Wars, the Avengers, Pixar and more. 

This was evident late last year when we opened World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland and, just a month later, Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort, where we continue to receive tremendous response from our guests. 

We’re keeping that momentum going in 2024. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens this year at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, and we’re about to unveil Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea, the largest single-land expansion ever at a Disney park. I was in Paris last week and met with the teams who just completed the transformation of the Disneyland Hotel and are now building the Frozen-themed land at our Walt Disney Studios Park. 

Our expansion is as active on sea as it is on land. Disney Cruise Line will continue adding to its reputation as the top choice for families as we open a new island destination this summer in the Bahamas, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. Then in December we’ll set sail on the next ship to join our fleet, the Disney Treasure. 

In the digital realm, our relationship with Epic Games is going to create a new games and entertainment universe that will connect fans and players with our characters in ways we have never done before.  

And all of this is just the beginning – there are so many stories in our library yet to be explored. As we turbocharge Disney Experiences over the next 10 years, we’re investing aggressively and thoughtfully to give you more of what you love. There has never been a more exciting time at Disney Experiences. I’m looking forward to having you on this journey with us.

That’s a nice summary of what’s going on at the Disney Parks and Experiences division right now. I wouldn’t say there’s much in the way of new information in that post though. What did come earlier in the day was a humorously named ‘inspirational artwork’ piece about an Avatar experience coming to Disneyland Resort. Here’s a look at that!

It’s extremely pretty and looks different than Pandora in Walt Disney World! D’Amaro alludes to this expansion being contingent upon DisneylandForward passing through Anaheim City Council. Things look promising in that regard. I will caution that the company calling this ‘inspirational artwork’ instead of concept art shows just how far away and up in the air this is. It’s a nice carrot to dangle in front of the DisneylandForward vote though.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago but I’m ready for actual announcements to come on these projects and don’t have much interest in the hypotheticals at this point. That’s what the majority of the major projects talked about recently have been – hypotheticals. Some of that is waiting out the pandemic. Some has been getting through the red tape of a proxy fight and expansion proposal. Now that those obstacles are clearing, I’m eager to see what’s next!

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