Activist investor Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management wants two seats on The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors, Seeking Alpha reports.

Trian Fund Management is one of Disney’s largest shareholders, with stakes valued at over $2.5 billion. Peltz and Trian previously pushed for him to have a seat on the board after Disney privately turned down his request to join. He launched a public run for the seat in January 2023 but ended the proxy war with Disney the next month. In October, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Peltz was seeking an unknown number of seats again.

Peltz has expressed concerns that Disney shares are significantly undervalued and that they need a more accountable board aligned with shareholders. He ended his first push for a seat after Disney announced a major reorganizing and cost-cutting plan.

This time around, Former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter has handed voting power for his Disney shares over to Trian. They previously controlled 9.4 million shares but with Perlmutter’s stake, control 33 million.

Perlmutter told the Wall Street Journal that he would urge Disney’s board to “immediately welcome one or more Trian board candidates.”

Perlmutter was fired from Marvel Entertainment during waves of layoffs earlier this year. He had supported Peltz’s initial run for the board and also infamously almost fired Kevin Feige, but was stopped by CEO Bob Iger.

In an appearance on CNBC earlier this month, Iger said, “I don’t have specifics about what Nelson is really after or what he will ask for.”

This week, at New York Times DealBrook Summit, Iger addressed the proxy war again, saying, “The board has an obligation to listen to investors. I am certain that the board will hear them out as to what their plans are.”

He added, “It’s not like we have a number of empty [board] seats.”

Immediately after his DealBrook Summit interview, Disney announced they were appointing two new directors to the board, temporarily increasing the board size to 13. James P. Gorman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley, and Sir Jeremy Darroch, veteran media executive and former Group Chief Executive of Sky, will both be appointed early next year.

The window for shareholder nominations for the board is December 5 through January 4. The nominations would then be voted on at Disney’s annual meeting in the spring.

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The time has finally come!

The Haunted Mansion

We’ve been hanging out with the same 999 grim-grinning ghosts at Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion for years, and now that one more has materialized, of course, we had to go check it out. Come with us to see the Hatbox Ghost at the Haunted Mansion!

Disney announced that the Hatbox Ghost would arrive in Magic Kingdom in late November, and now that time has officially arrived!

Haunted Mansion

Disney noted, “The Hatbox Ghost will appear to guests as they pass the Endless Hallway, welcoming himself inside from the swinging wake in the cemetery and grinning at the Doom Buggies as they set off deeper in.” 

HERE HE IS! The Hatbox Ghost is officially in Disney World! pic.twitter.com/rmpG5oqxSl

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) November 30, 2023

We had been keeping an eye out for signs of his arrival, so you know we had to go check him out for ourselves — and there he is!!

There he is!

Of course, we weren’t the only ones trying to see this new happy haunt materialize in the Haunted Mansion, but we hopped in line to see what we were in for — so make sure you pack your patience!

WOO!

Disney World is changing all the time and we’re keeping up with it all, so stay tuned to DFB for more!

Disney World Dates You Need To Know for 2024

Will you be checking out the Hatbox Ghost? Tell us in the comments.

The post BREAKING! The Hatbox Ghost Has Arrived at The Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom first appeared on the disney food blog.

Over a year after his arrival was first announced, the Hatbox Ghost has joined the happy haunts of the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Hatbox Ghost Arrives at Magic Kingdom

Guests can now encounter the Hatbox Ghost in the Endless Hallway scene, standing beside the neverending passage and grinning at guests as they ride by in their Doom Buggies. This makes him the first specter that guests actually see on the ride, appearing before the narration states that happy haunts are “beginning to materialize.”

Initial preparations for his arrival were made in August, with curtains going up in the Endless Hallway on August 1. The Haunted Mansion closed for refurbishment from August 7–10, and while the Hatbox Ghost was not present when the attraction re-opened, some minor changes were visible, such as an updated Madame Leota and the return of Prince Amenmose, the tea-sipping mummy, to the graveyard scene.

We have wondered whether the addition of the Hatbox Ghost in this particular location will negatively affect the lore of the Haunted Mansion, but Disney Imagineer Daniel Joseph shared at Destination D23 2023 that since Hatbox Ghost is an “unhappy haunt,” he can come and go as he pleases.

The Hatbox Ghost was in the original Disneyland Haunted Mansion on opening day. Technology had not quite caught up to the ghost’s vanishing and appearing head, however, so the ghost only lasted a few weeks before disappearing for nearly 50 years.

The Hatbox Ghost returned to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in 2015. He appears at the end of the attic scene, after the Bride.

Stay tuned for our video of Hatbox Ghost in action inside the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom:

Have you seen the Hatbox Ghost now that he’s materialized in Magic Kingdom? Let us know what you think of the new addition in the comments.

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