2 HUGE Updates Disney Might Share Next Week

The Walt Disney Company is facing quite a few challenges right now.

Between the legal battles with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the fight for seats on Disney’s Board of Directors, and less-than-stellar box office and streaming results, CEO Bob Iger has had a lot going on. But, we’re hoping he has enough time to give us some updates during an upcoming conference.

Disney CEO Bob Iger will be participating in a question and answer session at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Tuesday, March 5th, and we’re expecting to hear him comment on various aspects of The Walt Disney Company.

But, there are two things we think he’ll touch on in particular and we’re telling you why.

The Battle for Disney’s Board of Directors

Disney is battling two activist groups seeking spots on the board of directors, and the company is making every effort to ensure that doesn’t happen.  We’ve seen Professor Ludwig von Drake showing how to cast a vote, a video featuring CEO Bob Iger, and even a slideshow on their new website.

With the annual shareholder meeting coming up on April 3rd, Iger will likely answer some sort of question about the proxy battle’s impact on the company. In January, Disney revealed the 12 nominees they endorsed for the board of directors and shared their official rejection of the activist nominees, Nelson Peltz and James Rasulo.

In an official statement, Disney stated, “The Board does not endorse the nominations of Nelson Peltz and James Rasulo put forth by Trian Fund Management, L.P., and its affiliates, led by Nelson Peltz and supported by former Disney executive Isaac Perlmutter (collectively, the “Trian Group”). The Board recommends that shareholders do not vote for the Trian Group nominees and that they reject a related proposal from the Trian Group to amend the Company Bylaws.”

In a video of Bob Iger sent to shareholders, he said, “I’m urging you to vote for the Disney board’s recommended slate of nominees on the white proxy card, and NOT to vote for the nominees presented by these activist hedge funds,” he continued, “You have the power to make sure we are able to continue our momentum from the past year.”

If you’re a Disney shareholder, make sure you submit your vote. You have until April 3rd to cast your vote, and we’ll find out the results at the 2024 Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Streaming Updates

We know that streaming is one of Iger’s top priorities, so we’re expecting him to give us some sort of update when it comes to this side of the business. Disney was recently hit with a lawsuit over its new sports streaming service, and they also just announced plans to merge with another media company in India, so there’s a lot to talk about.

There’s also the fact that the Disney+ and Hulu merger is officially rolling out in March, so we may learn more about what that will look like. The beta version has been out for a while, but with the official debut, we could hear Iger comment on more changes.

Disney+ has also been losing subscribers, though the company has reported it is still on track to reach profitability by the end of 2024.

At the end of the 2023 fiscal year, Disney+ Core had 112.6 million subscribers and Disney+ Hotstar had 37.6 million. By the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, Disney+ Core had 111.3 million subscribers and Disney+ Hotstar had 38.3 million. We likely won’t hear official numbers, but we could get an update on subscriber growth.

Of course, we’ll have to wait for the official call to be sure. You can stream the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at approximately 1:15PM ET/ 10:15AM PT. To stream live, visit www.disney.com/investors.

Stay tuned to AllEars as we continue to bring you the latest news from Disney and more.

Learn More About the Upcoming Shareholder Meeting and What It Could Mean for Disney

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