Sometimes something happens to remind us that for all the progress we've made after many years of trying, companies still don't take activist investors as seriously as we'd like, we still have a long way to go, and sometimes it feels a little like it's our own fault. Last week one of those things happened. 

A relatively low-key announcement from Disney shows how executives deflect investors with relatively little pain. In settling with a group of shareholders over a proxy access proposal, Disney surrendered virtually nothing. 

We concede immediately that we don't know the complete story behind this settlement. We base our assessment only on the public account, so if anyone cares to shed light on what really happened, we'd gladly change our mind. For now, though, it looks like shareholders let Disney off easy.