Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Ike Perlmutter, Marvel Comics | Tagged: ike perlmutter, laura perlmutter
Ike Perlmutter Sells All His Marvel/Disney Shares For $3 Billion
Ike Perlmutter Sells All His Marvel/Disney Shares For $3 Billion, But Pledges To Buy Them Back When Disney Stock Crashes
Article Summary
- Ike Perlmutter sells his Disney shares for $3 billion, exiting his stake completely.
- Perlmutter vows to buy back shares if Disney's stock price drops to $65-$75.
- Known for cost-cutting among Disney's major shareholders, Perlmutter influenced Marvel and Lucasfilm.
- Perlmutter is a significant donor to Donald Trump and trans surgical research, with deep involvement in Trump's administration.
Ike Perlmutter, former chair of Marvel, the man who pulled the comics publisher out of bankruptcy, pushed them to make movies rather than license the rights, and then sold Marvel for four billion dollars to Disney in 2009, is out. Completely. Robbie Whelan at the Wall Street Journal reports that Perlmutter has finally sold all his Disney shares, 25.6 million of which he acquired due to the Disney buyout, for almost three billion. The sale was made between early April and mid-July for around $115 a share. When he originally acquired them, they were at $27 a share.
Coupled with the billion he got from the sale, on top of his existing billion, Ike Perlmutter may have made more money out of comic books than anyone else, ever.
One of Disney's largest individual shareholders, Perlmutter, was known for causing all manner of ructions at Marvel and Lucasfilm in the pursuit of cutting costs. After being fired by Disney, he pooled his shares with activist investor Nelson Peltz, who tried to win two seats on Disney's board but failed back in April. CNBC reported that Peltz also sold his stock for around a billion; it looks like Perlmutter did the same.
However, it seems that Perlmutter may be back. He says he sold because he doesn't have confidence in Disney's current management. And has pledged that if Disney shares were to drop to $65-$75 per share, he will repurchase what he just sold. They are currently on $123.
Ike Perlmutter and his wife, Laura Perlmutter, are also Donald Trump's largest individual donors. Fellow members of Mar-A-Lago, they sat at his Thanksgiving dinner instead of his family, and when Trump was elected President, became part of his administration. Laura worked on his inauguration committee, and Ike Perlmutter was appointed to Veteran's Affairs, as Ike Perlmutter was a veteran of the Six-Day War as an Israeli soldier before moving to America. Counter-intuitively, they are also the world's largest donors to trans surgical research and operations, as well as towards projects trying to get longstanding prisoners released. He remains a fascination as a subject for Bleeding Cool.