Disney and Florida settled

I mean, Nelson Peltz was breathing down their necks with a super-aggressive attack. I certainly have no inside scoop here, but a reasoned guess here is that the end of the DeSantis litigation ended a distraction for a company that has multiple business hurdles to their existing business models (most notably the change in entertainment from Cable to streaming and the changes in how people view theater-released movies). In other words, the settlement swept away one of Peltz’s talking points.

I would have preferred Disney see this to the end, and ensure no future power-mad leader silenced speech through retaliation. But I guess Disney has other present worries, and ultimately it won’t matter because the leaders want to pacify the mouse that pays Florida bills (though its dirge if tourism, jobs and taxes).

 

This is a great win for DeSantis. He gave Disney everything it wanted, and it resulted in a settlement.

 

Based on the vote percentages, Iger got a vote of confidence. But Peltz stated:

Although Peltz lost the proxy fight, he warned that he would take up the crusade again if Disney didn’t follow through on its pledges, including to move quickly on the CEO succession process to name a replacement for Iger (whose contract extension is up at the end of 2026). “We will watch like we did last time,” Peltz said in an interview on CNBC on April 4. “We’ve got a new set of promises, and I hope they keep them… but if they don’t, you’ll see me again.”



This would seem to be irrelevant to the Florida political dispute, but the identity of Iger's successor will likely be analyzed politically, at least in part.

But the battle against "wokeness" in content will be hard to predict. Iger, unwisely to my mind, impliedly faulted Disney's recent unsuccessful movies for being too intent on messages as opposed to stories, which most interpreted as saying their movies didn't sell because the public didn't want "message". And of course, someone noted that Barbie and Oppenheimer both showed the exact opposite.

And there is the next generation. So much of the battle against "wokeness" a rearguard action by an older generation that is aging out, and are using their minority political power to try to bend culture to their preferences. Still don't think a large studio that seeks to appeal to a broad audience can cater to an audience that supports DeSantis.