The Disney+ website on a laptop computer in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, July 18, 2022.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Disney has reached a deal with activist investor Dan Loeb’s Third Point, which includes adding former Meta executive Carolyn Everson to its board of directors, the companies said on Friday.
The deal comes weeks after Third Point took a new stake in Disney valued at about $1 billion, or 0.4% of the company, and urged the media company to spin out its sports property, ESPN.
Initially, Loeb said breaking off ESPN would give Disney more flexibility to pursue sports betting and other business initiatives. However, shortly after Loeb reversed course.
“We have a better understanding of @espn’s potential as a standalone business and another vertical for $DIS to reach a global audience to generate ad and subscriber revenues,” Loeb said earlier this month in a tweet.
On Friday, Disney said in a public filing that, with Third Point’s support, it would add Everson to its board ahead of its board meeting in November.
As part of the deal, Third Point agreed to some standstill provisions, including that it wouldn’t take a stake in Disney that’s larger than 2% and that it wouldn’t solicit proxies or present proposals. Third Point also won’t get involved in board nominations, according to the filing.
Everson was at Meta, formerly Facebook, for more than 10 years, where she served as the social media platform’s ads chief. Although Everson had been considered one of the most prominent women — alongside Facebook’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg — she left the company after Marne Levine was promoted to chief business officer last summer.
Most recently, she did a brief stint as president of grocery delivery service Instacart, where she left after just three months. At the time, Instacart and Everson told CNBC the decision for her to leave was mutual.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.