Nelson Peltz and Trian Management are getting some reinforcements in its siege on the Magic Kingdom from none other than Elon Musk.
Peltz has been attempting to gain a solid amount of control over Disney by gaining seats on Disney's board of directors. Still, Disney has been doing its absolute best to repel Peltz and maintain total control, labeling Peltz as an "activist investor" and launching a social campaign against Peltz to convince shareholders not to vote against Trian's influence.
(READ: Disney's Resistance to Nelson Peltz's Influence Is Concerning)
Trian's business model is to go into failing companies and revitalize them, a venture that it's quite successful at and which has quite a few big-name victories under its belt. Disney would be Trian's largest project yet, but before I can truly enact any control from within, it has to get its foot in the door.
This is a project that Peltz has been working on for some time as Trian has bought up dump truckloads of stocks and even received control of an incredibly large portion of stock from former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, a man Disney attempted to rid itself of after he resisted its new woke direction.
(READ: Nelson Peltz's Influence on Disney Increases Dramatically After a Man Disney Tried to Bury Shows Up)
Meanwhile, Musk launched his own war against Disney which now features a massive lawsuit being filed by former Mandalorian actress Gina Carano after she was fired for less than honest reasons over a post she had on X. Musk invited others who were wrongfully terminated by Disney to join the lawsuit.
This caused many to ask why with some assuming Musk's move is pure vengeance for Disney pulling its advertising dollars off of X. Others, however, speculate that Musk is coming for Disney because he eventually wants to buy it with Musk himself fueling some of these rumors.
(READ: Is Elon Musk Eyeing Disney?)
Now, both Musk and Peltz are making sure they're seen together, in person. As Variety reported, both men were seen on the red carpet premiere of the indie flick "Lola," in which Peltz's daughter has a role. They took a picture together which, by itself, could mean nothing. However, during an interview on the red carpet, Musk coyly joked that he was there to think on companies he could possibly acquire.
Umm, guys, @elonmusk is hanging out with Nelson Peltz "thinking about what companies to acquire."@Disney and @RobertIger must be sweating bullets right now.
β Pro Swing Trading πππΊπΈ (@Pro__Trading) February 6, 2024
pic.twitter.com/FojD1gd7tF
Again, not a confirmation that he's looking to acquire Disney, but Musk's presence on the red carpet of a movie connected to the man currently vying for the soul of the House that Walt built seems more than a mere coincidence.
In my opinion, all roads lead to Peltz right now. As Disney tries to fight him off, it's besieged on three sides. First is Peltz and Trian's attempt to gain seats on the board by hoovering up Disney stock.
The second is Elon Musk who is currently taking financial chunks out of Disney through lawsuits and perhaps other means down the line, possibly whittling down Disney's stock in the process and making it easier for Peltz to buy more.
The third front is Disney itself, which seems to be in an internal conflict. Not only can it not seem to shake off the reputation for being a woke company it gave itself, but there are indicators that not all is going well inside the Magic Kingdom. Firings of even top executives have occurred within the last year, and Iger has signaled that he's trying to get the company back to the imagineering storyteller that everyone loves.
I'm not sure if I buy that.
(READ: No Mercy for Disney or Bob Iger)
Either way, Disney is shooting itself in the foot which only helps pave the way for Peltz to take some form of control. What happens after that is still up in the air. Musk seems to be putting in a great deal of effort to weaken Disney and given his track record, I doubt he'd go through all this trouble over a grudge.
There is still a long, protracted battle ahead of all parties concerned but I have a strong feeling we're going to start seeing some big moves made by one or all of these players in the next few months. Especially as Carano's lawsuit gets underway and Peltz's fight for board seats heats up.
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