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. (Disney shares closed down 3.
4% on Tuesday to $90.94 per share.) 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, Per.