Critics Are Demanding a Complete Overhaul of Disney

2022 was one of the Walt Disney Company’s worst years since the 1970s. The Mouse House saw its stock drop to an all-time low, and the company faced one challenge after another, experiencing what many call a “disaster” of a year. While one consequence of this year was the former Disney CEO Bob Chapek being ousted from his position, and his predecessor Disney CEO Bob Iger, coming back to take the helm, there is one more action that some shareholders and critics are demanding Disney take. Now, some would like to see the entire Disney board, which was responsible for the decisions which led to Disney’s last year, replaced.

Related: Disney Stands Against Shareholders’ Demand for “Communist China Audit”

 A shareholder in the Walt Disney Company, the National Legal and Policy Center, has called upon the investors of the company to vote out and oppose every single nominee for the board of directors of the Mouse House. Every nominee is a carryover that presided over Disney in 2022. The NLPC has issued an extensive memorandum which it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission which outlines why the board of directors doesn’t deserve to return for another term. The board’s nominees include the current Disney CEO, Bob Iger.

Per excerpts from this memorandum, Disney “has seen an inexplicable decline in shareholder returns compared to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index,” despite having businesses that are “automatic revenue generators” and “nearly recession-proof entertainment” i.e. the Theme Parks, the “wealth of creative intellectual properties” and more.

The memorandum puts forth that,

The Company has squandered, wasted, devalued and ruined much of its content and beloved brands with the pursuit of a far-left political agenda – known in current-day parlance as “wokeness.” 

The memorandum also criticized the Walt Disney Company and the Disney board for its lack of ability to stand up against “dictators” and “oppressors” when in pursuit of revenue. It specifically calls out Disney taking a stand against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida while staying quiet if it meant accessing “TV audiences in the Muslim world.”

The document also specified that shareholder Abigail Disney called out the board in November,

The bottom line is that this was very poor succession planning and the onus of that has to land squarely on Bob Iger’s shoulders as well as the shoulders of the board of directors.

While it is unclear at present what direction this discussion and motion will go in, April 3, 2023—the annual shareholders meeting—will prove to be interesting and momentous in determining the future of the Walt Disney Company.