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Ike Perlmutter, the former Marvel Entertainment chairman who was ousted last year, sold all of his Disney stock — about 25.6 million shares — for almost $3 billion, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Perlmutter, who was among the largest individual shareholders in the Mouse House, sold his stake in Disney between early April and mid-July at an average price of just under $115/share, per the report. Through a rep, Perlmutter declined to provide additional comment.
Perlmutter had pooled his Disney holdings with Trian Partners, led by activist investor Nelson Peltz, who had staged a pricey and ultimately unsuccessful proxy fight to win two seats on Disney’s board. In the days following the April 3 shareholder vote in which Disney investors voted down Trian’s board nominees, Peltz had cashed out of Disney’s stock to reap $1 billion, per a CNBC report.
Disney had characterized Trian’s campaign as fueled by a “longstanding personal agenda” harbored by Perlmutter against Iger, who last year fired Perlmutter.
According to the Journal story, Perlmutter said he expects Disney’s stock to continue to drop — and that if the share price falls to $65-$75 per share, he plans to repurchase much of his previous stock holdings. Perlmutter had become a major shareholder in Disney when he sold Marvel Entertainment to the media conglomerate for more than $4 billion in 2009.
As Marvel chairman, Perlmutter famously fought Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige over making “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” — on the belief that movies with Black or women lead characters would not be commercially successful — until Iger intervened to overrule Perlmutter.
