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Activist investor Nelson Peltz is throwing in the towel when it comes to his Disney ambitions — for good this time.
CNBC, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, reports that Peltz, who has launched two unsuccessful bids for a seat on Disney’s board of directors in recent years, sold off his remaining stake in the entertainment giant. The sale netted the 81-year-old investor $1 billion, with shares valued at about $120 apiece at the time of the sale, CNBC reports. Peltz’s asset management firm Trian Partners owned a roughly $3.5 billion stake in Disney as of January, at the height of the proxy contest. Disney stock closed Wednesday at $100.88 per share.
Trian declined to comment. Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.
Disney shareholders rejected Peltz’s latest — and most aggressive — bid for a board seat on April 3, voting instead for CEO Bob Iger and the company’s other nominees. Trian had formally nominated Peltz and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo for two seats on the board in January, with the hopes of carrying out a CEO succession plan, aligning performance-based compensation with shareholder value, and developing a strategy to reach margins similar to Netflix’s by 2027.
During the roughly six-month proxy battle, Disney stock rose about 50% and was the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s best performer year-to-date, Trian said in a statement following the board vote. The media giant’s stock is up more than 11% so far this year, beating out the S&P 500 by a hair.
“While we are disappointed with the outcome of this proxy contest, Trian greatly appreciates all of the support and dialogue we have had with Disney stakeholders,” Trian said in April. “We are proud of the impact we have had in refocusing this Company on value creation and good governance.”
Trian Partners bought $800 million worth of Disney shares in 2022, when the stock was trading at about $88 a share — and before Peltz launched his first campaign for a seat on the board. Trian sold roughly one-third of its stake last year after Peltz dropped that bid, which made him an approximately $60 million profit.