Nelson Peltz wants to “restore the magic” at Disney.

Last week, the renowned 80-year-old activist investor revealed plans to launch a proxy fight for a seat on the company’s board, arguing Disney has “lost its way, resulting in a rapid deterioration in its financial performance.”

Disney quickly said it opposes Peltz’s move, and what ensued has been the securities filing equivalent of a rap battle.

What’s Peltz arguing?

Late last year, Peltz’s Trian Fund Management began accumulating an $800m stake in the company after it released poor earnings results.

On a 10-year time horizon, Peltz’s snazzy website points out, Disney stock has underperformed the S&P 500 and its media peers, overpaid executives, failed to craft a successful CEO succession, and eroded shareholder value with its $71B 21st Century Fox acquisition in 2019.

Disney disagreed…

… firing back on Tuesday by outlining what it views as CEO Bob Iger’s strong record of financial and creative success.

Using Peltz’s own arguments against him, Disney explained how, since 2005, the company has actually outperformed the S&P 500, 554% to 244%, as well as its media peers.

“Nelson Peltz does not understand Disney’s businesses,” the filing reads, among other disses.

It’s not Peltz’s first proxy rodeo

Previously, Peltz gained access to boards in contests at Heinz and Procter & Gamble, where he claims to have helped improve the companies’ financial performances.

Charles Elson, a corporate governance advocate at the University of Delaware, told Bloomberg that Peltz’s chances of winning a seat are good, given how Disney’s challenging 2022 may have soured investor sentiment.

In the winter of 1979, a powerful Chicago political dynasty began to collapse.

Michael A. Bilandic, a cog in Richard J. Daley’s political machine, lost the mayoral election in a stunning upset. But there was a simple reason for the defeat: Bilandic didn’t clear the snow quickly enough.

After a forecast for a couple inches, a blizzard hit Chicago that January. Buses and trains didn’t run for days, residents couldn’t find anywhere to park their cars, and plows took forever to reach neighborhoods — unless you were lucky enough to live on the same block as Bilandic.

The lesson? Don’t take snow lightly.

Beyond closures and clogged roads, it can come with steep financial costs. According to a study from the Federal Highway Administration, the nation’s tab for snow and ice removal can be upwards of $4B per year.

Every year, cities and states must decide how to budget for random winter weather events. When they aren’t sufficiently prepared, the costs accumulate.

Where do those billions of dollars go? And how do cities plan for unpredictable weather events?

When somebody visits Amazon, there’s a good chance they’re going to buy something. Check out these conversion rates:

• 74% for Prime members
• 13% for non-Prime members
• 3%-6% for other ecommerce sites

Now, Amazon’s bringing its one-click formula to third-party sites.

“Buy with Prime”, which allows ecommerce sites to integrate with Amazon’s checkout, payment, and shipping services, will be available to all eligible US merchants by Jan. 31. For Prime members, that means free shipping, free returns, and one-click checkout.

A boon for Amazon?

During a pilot program, Buy with Prime increased shopper conversion rates by 25% on average, with some sellers reporting 30%+ increases.

Meanwhile, Amazon reaps payment processing fees from Buy with Prime purchases, expanding its total addressable market (TAM) to the entire ecommerce market — not just products sold on Amazon.

The company needs the boost: Amazon announced layoffs of 18k employees this month, and investors have been discouraged by its slowed growth.

The impact on Shopify

Ecommerce competitor Shopify has its own one-click payment offering, Shop Pay, which facilitated 137m+ orders in 2020.

But if its merchants adopt Buy with Prime instead, Shopify’s revenue growth may be at risk — especially if Amazon’s offering sees higher conversion rates than Shop Pay.

A perk or a drawback? Buy with Prime will also allow merchants to display reviews from Amazon.com on their own site, but they won’t be able to hide the bad reviews.