Disney is shaping up to be the latest front in the culture war as evidenced with the competing visions that are beginning to take shape with what will be a hostile takeover. Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund has taken a renewed interest in Disney and is seemingly positioning himself for a rematch to take control of the Mouse House after unsuccessfully doing so earlier this year.

 Peltz’s company has been purchasing more Disney shares as of late in addition to the ones Trian Fund owns including stock proxies deeded over to him by ex-Marvel chief Ike Perlmutter who was the sole buttress against the Mouse House’s wokeism and abruptly fired a short time ago. However, another player has emerged: ValueAct Capital who has been quietly buying up Disney shares.

Interestingly enough, ValueAct’s CEO, G. Mason Morfitt, is reportedly Disney CEO Bob Iger’s neighbor and is probably somehow hoping to jump to Iger’s defense. Despite Iger appointing former Pepsi executive Hugh Johnston as Disney’s new CFO in hopes of warding off Nelson Peltz, ValueAct’s actions clearly show a competition for control of the company is definitely on the horizon.

 So the two factions are Trian Fund or Nelson Peltz who wants to make drastic and necessary changes to Disney that restore it to what Walt Disney envisioned and ValueAct who seeks to seemingly preserve what Bob Iger is doing. That does not mean, however, that if Bob Iger prevails resulting from ValueAct’s efforts that there won’t be changes. In many ways what this comes down to a matter of different styles. 

 ValueAct Capital is dedicated more to facilitating consensus rather than abrupt changes or corporate shake ups. However, with the size and scope of Disney and the problems that have emerged, a Trian Fund or Peltz-style shake up (like what Peltz did with Proctor & Gamble) may be exactly what Disney needs. Especially when it comes to flushing out the woke cancer that Bob Iger seemingly accommodated.

 When the action gets started, it is possible ValueAct may get schooled as to how bad the rot is in Disney and ally with Trian Fund either due to wanting to avoid the stigma of being associated with Disney’s grooming or just because Bob Iger’s incompetence will be exposed. Hopefully, ValueAct would not want to reinforce Iger’s incompetent leadership (friendship is friendship but business is business).

None the less, it is going to get a lot more interesting in the coming weeks due to the implicit ideological conflict and especially since the ability to nominate people to Disney’s board can come as soon as December. This video does a very good job of explaining why Disney has ended up the way it has.

With all of this in mind, Danny DeVito’s explanation of value investing is prophetic.

Start popping the popcorn! This latest Disney drama is promising to be one heckuva ride!