Roy Disney May Try to Upend Board

The two dissident investors of Walt Disney Co. who campaigned to unseat Michael Eisner as chairman will nominate an alternative slate of directors next year if the current board does not “face up to the issues,” former director Stanley P. Gold said Monday.

Although Disney has been forecasting strong earnings growth over the next few years, Gold said Disney’s results would deteriorate because the company had “buildings full of suits” but was “bankrupt of creative people.”

Gold and fellow dissident investor Roy E. Disney, the nephew of company founder Walt Disney, spearheaded a drive to oust Eisner after they resigned from the board last year.

Gold is the chairman of Shamrock Holdings Inc., the U.S. investment arm of Roy Disney.

Their campaign against Eisner sparked the shareholder protest that flared at the company’s March 3 shareholder meeting, when 45% of ballots were withheld from Eisner’s reelection to the board. Eisner was ousted as chairman but remains chief executive of Disney.

Gold said he considered Pixar Animation Studios Chief Executive Steve Jobs qualified to take over as CEO from Eisner.

“If I had a list, Steve Jobs would be on a short list of people who could fix this company,” Gold said in answer to a question at a meeting of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Pixar, the pioneering computer animation house founded by Jobs, has been responsible for creating some of the most successful movies distributed by Disney in recent years, including “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story.” Pixar in late January ended talks with Disney to renew their movie distribution deal.

Shamrock must unveil its board candidates in early December in order to run on the slate next year, Gold said. “I’m less and less encouraged that they [the board] will face up to the issues, but if they don’t we will run a slate,” Gold said.

Disney, meanwhile, says it is on track to boost earnings from continuing operations more than 40% this year and by double-digit rates through 2007, in what it says is a validation of Eisner’s strategy.