Jobs family, trust won't stand for election to Disney board
updated 12:05 pm EST, Sun January 22, 2012
Jobs family to keep stake but not board seat
The Walt Disney Company in its 2012 proxy statement (below) indirectly confirmed that the late Steve Jobs' family or his trust won't be seeking a board position at the Disney shareholder meeting on March 13. Although the family is the largest individual shareholder with a 7.7 percent stake, no mention is made of them in the filing beyond their investment. It also shows that Jobs' option holdings were gone at the end of Disney's fiscal year.
Those who do remain include both current Disney executives like CEO Bob Iger as well as luminaries from a diverse background of companies, such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Board chairman John Pepper had already planned to resign in October.
Details from the filing confirmed that Jobs in his final year still declined any financial compensation for being on the Disney board.
The decision to turn down an attempt at a board position was expected, though not certain. Jobs was on the media giant's board for his specific expertise in technology and familiarity with digital video through iTunes, areas in which neither his family members nor the trust could offer help. As the former CEO of Pixar, he also had an interest in ensuring that the CG movie studio fared well after it was bought by Disney.
Jobs had stayed on Disney's board even after resigning as Apple CEO, just as he stayed board chairman at Apple until his death in October. [via Reuters]
