Jamie Dimon backs Disney’s Bob Iger in proxy fight with Nelson Peltz

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has endorsed Disney’s Bob Iger as a proxy battle with billionaire activist Nelson Peltz nears a showdown at the entertainment giant’s annual meeting next month.

In a statement on Wednesday, Dimon said of the Disney CEO: “Bob is a first-class executive and outstanding leader who I’ve known for decades. He knows the media and entertainment business cold and has the successful track record to prove it.”

“Putting people on a board unnecessarily can harm a company. I don’t know why shareholders would take that risk,” he added.

With a shareholder vote set for April 3, Disney faces proxy fights with Peltz’s Trian Partners and Blackwells Capital, which are seeking board seats and other changes aimed at boosting the company’s share price. ValueAct, another activist investor, has backed Disney’s board nominees.

JPMorgan has a long-standing and lucrative relationship with Disney, which, particularly under Iger’s leadership, has generated huge fees for the bank. Disney has paid JPMorgan more than $160mn in fees since 2014, more than to any other investment bank, according to LSEG data.

JPMorgan was advising Disney on the proxy battle with Trian, according to people familiar with the matter. Disney has also hired JPMorgan as an adviser in negotiations to buy the remaining stake of streaming service Hulu from rival Comcast. In 2017, JPMorgan advised Disney on its blockbuster $71bn acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

Dimon’s decision to intervene in a sensitive matter is not a first for the veteran banker. He worked closely with Adam Neumann when WeWork was struggling to win over investors, and has worked closely with buyers and sellers in tense M&A situations. “He’s an activist CEO,” said a person close to Dimon. “He’ll do anything to help a client.”

Blackwells issued a presentation this week estimating that ValueAct, which has been a supportive investor of Disney, has made up to an estimated $95mn in fees from managing pension funds of company employees, raising doubts over its impartiality in the proxy fight.

A person close to the matter said ValueAct was no longer managing any Disney pension money when it built its position in Iger’s company. The person also added that Blackwells’ estimate of the fees was inaccurate without indicating what the correct number was.

As Iger battles Peltz, he has also secured endorsements from the grandchildren of Disney founders Walt and Roy Disney, who sent a letter to shareholders backing the chief executive.

During a well-received earnings release last month, Iger pulled out all the stops. He announced shareholder-friendly measures — such as a $3bn share buyback and a 50 per cent dividend increase — as well as a $1.5bn investment in Epic Games and the exclusive streaming rights to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie, which grossed more than $260mn at the box office.

Peltz is seeking board seats for himself and former Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo. Also on Peltz’s team is Isaac Perlmutter, the former chair of Marvel Entertainment, who became a large Disney shareholder after selling Marvel to the company. Perlmutter, whose stake is worth about $2.4bn, has pledged his shares to Trian as it pursues its proxy battle.

Disney in January noted a “fraught history” between Perlmutter and Iger, who fired Perlmutter in 2023 after years of tensions. Iger asked Peltz in a November phone call if he knew Perlmutter’s “objective” in pursuing board changes, but Peltz did not engage on the subject, according to a filing.

Disney also said Perlmutter had been a “staunch supporter” of Rasulo, who resigned after he was passed over as Iger’s heir apparent.

In November, Disney named two new directors — former Morgan Stanley chair and chief executive James Gorman and Sir Jeremy Darroch, the former group chief executive of British pay-TV and broadband company Sky — to its board.

Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West in New York