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Activist investor Nelson Peltz lost his high-profile proxy fight<\/a> against Disney\u2019s board on Wednesday after shareholders voted by a \u201csubstantial margin\u201d to reject Peltz\u2019s proposal that he and former Disney<\/a> chief financial officer Jay Rasulo be granted board seats<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, Disney\u2019s full slate of all 12 board members were re-elected to their seats, a Disney spokesperson said in an announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n For months, Peltz and his firm Trian Fund Management had been waging<\/a> a major campaign against Disney\u2019s board arguing that the board wasn\u2019t adequately performing its duty and that CEO Bob Iger didn\u2019t have nearly enough skin in the game. Peltz\u2019s main criticisms of Disney\u2019s board were that the company had botched succession planning<\/a> for Iger and had failed to put together a profitable streaming strategy. The campaign put forward Rasulo as a strategic expert in the company\u2019s juggernaut theme parks division, which didn\u2019t gain traction with investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n The results of the vote handed Peltz a resounding defeat. Before the meeting even started Reuters<\/em> had broken a story<\/a> Peltz had already lost. Early tabulations showed Peltz losing his vote to fill longtime high-net worth investment CEO Maria Elena Lagomasino\u2019s board seat by three to one, while Rasulo lost his vote against former Mastercard<\/a> president Michael Froman by an even wider margin of five to one, according to the Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the course of Peltz\u2019s fight against the Disney board both sides engaged in a media and advertising blitz to prove their case to shareholders. Disney said it spent almost $40 million on an advertising campaign. Meanwhile Peltz spent about $25 million on his media offensive and released a 133-page deck called \u201cRestore the Magic,\u201d outlining his plan<\/a> that called for, among other things, \u201cNetflix-like\u201d streaming margins<\/a> of 15% to 20%.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the campaign, Iger secured several big name supporters including JPMorgan Chase<\/a> CEO Jamie Dimon<\/a>, major Disney shareholder and Star Wars creator George Lucas<\/a> (likely through a connection with his wife Mellody Hobson<\/a> who sits on JPMorgan\u2019s board), and the backing of many of Walt Disny\u2019s heirs<\/a>, including Abigail Disney, who has been openly critical<\/a> of him in the past. Peltz did get the backing of another noted Iger hater\u2014Elon Musk. The world\u2019s richest man promised<\/a> to buy more Disney stock if Peltz won his board seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the fight behind him, Iger said he was looking forward to returning to business as usual.\u00a0 \u201cWith the distracting proxy contest now behind us, we\u2019re 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,\u201d he said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Peltz\u2019s camp said in a statement reported by the Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>: \u201cWe are proud of the impact we have had in refocusing this company on value creation and good governance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Disney\u2019s stock was down 3% on the day after the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n