THB #298: Peltz or Putz

A lot of conversation today about Nelson Peltz and Disney… starting with Nelson Peltz, who did a long bit on CNBC this morning.

The best thing I can say about Mr. Peltz, who has been a remarkable businessman for a long time, is that he is very clear about what he is thinking. He wants to do for Disney what he did for Proctor & Gamble. He wants to refocus the company on its core, led by Parks… which is the cleanest, clearest, more easily defined model in the Disney business, delivering about 18% net on gross revenues last quarter.

He’s not screaming wildly for Disney to sell off big chunks of the rest of the company, leaning, for instance, towards Disney buying out Hulu from Comcast, as opposed to trying sell it’s 2/3rds of Hulu to lower the company’s debt load.

That said, the solution to Streaming and the ongoing threat to Legacy models is not in cut-cut-cut. As I have been saying for over 3 years, the answer is also not spend-spend-spend. You don’t have to become Netflix to compete …