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Jay Rasulo, former Disney finance chief. PHOTO: STEVE MARCUS/REUTERS
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Good morning, CFOs. Nearly a decade after leaving Disney, Jay Rasulo, the company’s former finance chief, is back, this time as a nominee to join Disney’s board as part of activist investor Nelson Peltz’s proxy campaign against the company.
For more than a year, Peltz and his hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, have publicly criticized Disney’s current board and Chief Executive Bob Iger‘s management. Trian controls around 33 million Disney shares and is urging shareholders to vote Peltz and Rasulo onto the board at the company’s April 3 annual meeting.
The outcome of the vote could reshape how one of America’s most iconic entertainment companies is governed for years to come. The inclusion of Rasulo is a sign that Peltz thinks some shareholders will be persuaded to vote for a slate that includes an executive who grew intimately familiar with Disney over the course of his nearly 30-year tenure.
“When people call me about the company and what’s going on, I say, ‘Don’t ask me! It’s breaking my heart!’” Rasulo said in an interview. “When Nelson called me, I decided I couldn’t sit on the sidelines.”
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| Content from: DELOITTE |
| CFOs Plan Cautiously Amid Economic Concerns |
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Despite a generally more somber outlook on the economy and business conditions, many CFOs see opportunities ahead for increased M&A activity, according to Deloitte’s fourth-quarter 2023 “CFO Signals” survey. Keep Reading ›
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📈 Economic Indicators
Monday
- Earnings: Zoom Video Communications, Workday, Domino’s Pizza
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s new lineup takes effect. Amazon.com will join the index of 30 stocks prior to the start of trading. Walgreens Boots Alliance will be leaving.
- The U.S. Census Bureau reports sales data for new single-family homes in January.
Tuesday
- Earnings: eBay, J.M. Smucker, Macy’s, Lowe’s, Urban Outfitters
- S&P CoreLogic releases its Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for December.
Wednesday
- Earnings: Salesforce, Snowflake, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc.
- The Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its second of three estimates for fourth-quarter gross domestic product.
Thursday
- Earnings: Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Dell Technologies, Best Buy, Bath & Body Works
- The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the personal-consumption expenditures index for January.
Friday
- Earnings: Plug Power, fuboTV
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Nvidia’s chips used for training AI systems are expected to remain in high demand for the foreseeable future. PHOTO: MICHAELA VATCHEVA/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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- Private-equity firms are desperate to cash out of investments. But enthusiasm for initial public offerings is low after several stock-market debuts flopped. Enter so-called private IPOs.
- AT&T said it will offer a billing credit to customers affected by last week’s network outage that knocked out service to subscribers nationwide.
- Aluminum producer Alcoa moved to cement its position as one of the world’s largest bauxite and alumina producers by making a $2.2 billion offer to buy Australia’s Alumina, its joint-venture partner in a global mining operation.
- Participation is dwindling in a Federal Reserve program that has helped the U.S. government limit its borrowing costs, a development that many investors say presages higher interest rates and larger swings in the $26 trillion Treasury market.
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March 5-6, 2024 | New York, New York
Request an invitation | Participants and program
The era of cheap money is behind us and CFOs must now grapple with how to operate in a high interest rate environment, how fast to invest in artificial intelligence, and how to manage geopolitical tensions and thorny labor relations. With U.S. elections on the horizon, the CFO Network will discuss–through both newsmaking interviews and peer-to-peer discussions–how finance executives are reading the markets, driving the push for greater corporate efficiency and managing the pushback on ESG and DEI. Join WSJ journalists and some of the biggest names in corporate finance to discuss, debate and make headlines.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Martin Small, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Strategy and CFO, BlackRock
- Bori Cox, CFO, Consumer and Community Banking, JPMorgan Chase
- Paul Ryan, Vice Chairman, Teneo; 54th Speaker of the House
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ILLUSTRATION BY THOMAS R. LECHLEITER/WSJ. PHOTO: ISTOCK
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Flux Power, a Vista, Calif.-based lithium-ion energy storage company, named Kevin Royal as CFO, effective March 4. Royal was previously CFO at Zovio, an educational technology company. He succeeds Charles Scheiwe, who is leaving the company.
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The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics ranging from corporate tax accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.
Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team is reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.
You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at [email protected].
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