The Walt Disney Company (DIS) unveiled its slate of 12 board member nominees on Tuesday, notably snubbing Trian Fund Management CEO Nelson Peltz's activist investor campaign after his bid for a seat fell short last week. New additions include leaders from General Motors (GM), Lululemon (LULU), and Morgan Stanley (MS).

The board refresh comes as Disney CEO Bob Iger reassures plans to prioritize streaming investments and transform ESPN into a content juggernaut.

Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith and Bradley Smith break down the details.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Trending tickers we're watching today. Disney has nominated 12 people to its board of directors, formally rejecting the ones put forward by Nelson Peltz. The media giant also disclosed CEO, Bob Iger's compensation, which doubled in 2023. There, you're taking a look at shares pre-market. They're down by about 7/10 of a percent.

What they had mentioned within this is that the board does not endorse the nomination of Nelson Peltz and James Rasulo put forth by Trian Fund Management. However, of course, some of the notable figures that are the ones that were put forward by the brand, everyone from Lululemon CEO, Calvin McDonald-- you've got, of course, the GE-- GM CEO as well, Mary Barra in there, and then additionally, Mark Parker who is one of the noted and famed former CEOs of Nike as well here.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Safra Catz also among them, CEO of Oracle. The former CEO of Morgan Stanley, James Gorman. But talking about why Disney is fighting back against Iger and taking issue with him being named as one of the board members here, a couple of interesting points that I wanted to call out here just in terms of why Disney rejected Peltz's board seat.

A couple of things. They didn't-- he did not disclose one strategic idea for Disney, this is according to Disney's board. His assessment of Disney seemed oblivious to the ongoing secular change in the media industry. They also went on to say that he doesn't have much experience in media and technology sectors. And also some concerns about how the partnership with Perlmutter, his relationship there.

We know that Perlmutter has a very complex past with Iger and with other Disney executives, so exactly how that is going to impact Peltz's agenda with Disney with some of the issues that Disney really brought to light in this rejection of Peltz and his proposal should be one of the names nominated to this board.

I also want to point out what Bob Iger said in a letter to investors yesterday, just reiterating the vision that he has for Disney, saying that once again, he wants to make the streaming business profitable. Obviously, that has been a top priority for Iger and for the team at Disney here over the last several quarters. We've heard about that time and time again during earnings calls.

But also turning ESPN into that preeminent digital platform, really elevating what they already have right now. The content that they have at ESPN, transitioning that to the next era of media. And exactly what that looks like is one of the big questions here, one of the big focal points for shareholders.

As we know, we're taking a look at that one-year chart of Disney. We are off the 52-week low that we did see back in November, but not too far off. It's still off about 6% in the last 52 weeks. So there is a heck of a lot of pressure on Disney to right size the business. The question though, is how long is that turnaround going to take to play out.

BRAD SMITH: And how much does Bob Iger continue to make in compensation in that turnaround strategy.

SEANA SMITH: Heck of a lot of money, right?

BRAD SMITH: $31.6 million last year.