(Reuters) – Billionaire activist investor Daniel Loeb backed off from pushing Walt Disney Co to spin off ESPN, saying he has a “higher understanding” of the sports activities tv community’s potential for development.

This comes after Disney Chief Government Bob Chapek reaffirmed the worth of ESPN to the media firm.

“We imagine that ESPN is an asset that’s properly positioned inside the Walt Disney Firm (NYSE:),” Chapek instructed Reuters.

The investor mentioned in a tweet https://twitter.com/DanielSLoeb1/standing/1568958464164069376?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfwpercent7Ctwcamppercent5Etweetembedpercent7Ctwtermpercent5E1568958464164069376percent7Ctwgrpercent5E90ee1840a55a8505371308e1e7166f82e0649fb5percent7Ctwconpercent5Es1_&ref_url=httpspercent3Apercent2Fpercent2Fwww.bloomberg.compercent2Fnewspercent2Farticlespercent2F2022-09-11percent2Floeb-backs-down-on-call-for-espn-spinoff-after-disney-rejection on Sunday that he appears to be like ahead to seeing ESPN Chairman James Pitaro execute on the expansion and innovation plans, “producing appreciable synergies as a part of” Disney.

Loeb, who runs Third Level, in August disclosed a stake of roughly $1 billion in Disney and introduced plans to push the corporate to make a string of adjustments, from spinning off ESPN to purchasing again shares and including board members.

Chapek confirmed reviews that Disney had acquired quite a few inquiries from firms in search of to purchase ESPN earlier this 12 months amid rumors that the corporate was weighing a sale of the cable community.

The corporate has spent the final 12 months laying plans to reignite development at ESPN, and to place it for the long run as a part of Disney’s bundle of streaming service.

“It has been an ideal money circulate generator for us, which is, as we ramp up with streaming, form of helps pay the payments,” mentioned Chapek. “It is very, very constructive right this moment, and a very powerful factor was to at all times search for the long run, proper?”

On Loeb’s plan to push Disney so as to add new board members, Chapek defended the board, saying it had a broad “vary of skillsets” and that the typical tenure on it was 4 years.

Third Level, which owns roughly 0.4% stake in Disney, has additionally proposed that Disney speed up the timetable for purchasing the remaining stake in streaming service Hulu from minority stakeholder Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:) forward of the deliberate 2024 acquisition.

Chapek instructed Reuters he has been in dialog with Comcast about accelerating the timetable for the acquisition. “I might suppose it will make sense to them as a result of it is inevitable,” he mentioned.