Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger has reportedly been left “overwhelmed and exhausted” by the challenge of righting the ship at the Mouse House, whose tanking stock price has spurred activist investor Nelson Peltz to further boost his stake in the firm.People in Iger’s inner circle told Bloomberg News that the CEO, who recently returned to helm the company with great fanfare after the disastrous tenure of his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek, has often joked to confidantes: “Why did I come back?”Peltz, who called off his proxy fight with Disney in February after Iger committed to a $5.5 billion cost-cutting spree which included laying off 7,000 employees, has lost confidence in the CEO’s ability to turn the company’s fortunes around, according to The Wall Street Journal.In May, after Disney reported poor second-quarter earnings results, which stemmed mostly from its money-losing streaming division, Iger and Peltz spoke by telephone, according to The Journal.During the conversation, Iger reportedly sought to reassure Peltz that Disney was on the right footing despite investor sentiment.But Peltz and his team at Trian Fund Management decided to boost his stake in Disney from 6.4 million shares to 30 million shares as the company’s stock continued to decline over the summer.That makes Trian — which has over $8.5 billion under management — one of Disney’s largest investors with a stake valued at some $2.5 billion — and sets Peltz up to finally get the board seats he’s been vying for since early this year.In March 2021, Disney’s stock reached an all-time high of more than $191 per share as entertainment and media companies were reaping the fruits of pandemic-era lockdowns that forced Americans to consume more content at home.Since then, however, Disney’s stock price has been down more than 50%.It was trading at around $84.50 a share as of Tuesday morning.Last Wednesday, Disney’s stock closed at $78.32 a share — its lowest level in more than nine years.Trian, which Peltz co-founded in 2005, thinks Disney shares are significantly undervalued, according to The Journal, and has been putting pressure on Iger — who signed an extension to remain at the helm of the Mouse House through 2026 — to reverse Disney’s stock decline.Iger, meanwhile, has been taking steps to increase the company’s profits, including jacking up the price of its Disney+ streaming service and cracking down on password sharing.The increases will raise the monthly cost of ad-free Disney+ by $3, or roughly 27%, to almost $14.The cost of ad-free Hulu will likewise rise $3 to almost $18 — a 20% hike that will make it more expensive than the most popular ad-free tier at Netflix.Iger is also reportedly looking to unload Disney’s television assets, including ESPN, the all-sports empire that has seen its audience reach decline in an era of fragmented internet and media.
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