There's a lot riding on Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) when it steps up to post financial results for its fiscal first quarter this week. It won't be about just the numbers when the media giant pushes out its earnings report and hosts its conference call shortly after Wednesday's market close. There's a proxy battle underway with a couple of activists feeling that Disney isn't doing enough to unlock shareholder value.

If the large and critical stakeholders are right, their fellow investors will vote in new directors at the annual shareholder meeting on April 3. It will come at the expense of Disney's own slate of favored directors. It's a message from retail and institutional investors that could rattle the ranks of leadership at the House of Mouse. It's CEO Bob Iger's last chance to deliver financial results before shareholders vote. He can't fail to disappoint.

Things were easier for Iger at the helm the first time around. He came in and calmed a rocky empire, spearheading deals to acquire Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and key content assets from 21st Century Fox during his reign to make sure that no other media company had anything close to its arsenal of intellectual properties.

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Source Fool.com