While he was alive, Steve Jobs was Walt Disney’s single largest shareholder, courtesy of his role running Pixar, the company which transformed him into a billionaire. (No, it wasn’t Apple!)
However, it seems that Jobs’ family aren’t holding onto their largest stakeholder position, as Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs has since cut her stake in Walt Disney in two.
According to recent regulatory filings, Powell Jobs now holds around 64 million Disney shares. That’s down from the 130,181,925 Disney shares that were left for Laurene Powell to oversee in her capacity as manager of Jobs’ estate.
Steve Jobs became Disney’s largest shareholder in 2006, after Disney agreed to acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock. In the aftermath of the deal, each Pixar share was swapped for 2.3 Disney shares, which gave Jobs a grand total of 138 million Disney shares — meaning that he owned a massive 7.7 percent of the company.
Now that Powell Jobs “only” owns 4 percent of Disney, it means that she no longer has reveal her transactions with Disney shares, as this is only required of those who own upwards of 5 percent. Should she wish to do so, she would be free to sell all of them without publicly disclosing it.
At present, Powell Jobs is the fourth-largest individual Disney shareholder.
Source: Barrons