Vote No, Say on Pay fails at Morgan Stanley
Almost lost in yesterday’s major media coverage of Motorola and Yahoo announcements was Morgan Stanley’s shareholder meeting today, where a campaign had been mounted by a union pension advisor, CtW Investment Group.
CNBC is reporting this morning that both the Vote No campaign and the Say on Pay campaign have failed. With 85% of the shareholder votes accounted for, all directors have received more than 90% of the vote. This includes Chairman/CEO John Mack (update: 94.5%) and director Robert Kidder, who were targets of most of the Vote No rhetoric.
The Say on Pay proposal, which received 35% of the vote last year, will again draw under 50% (update: The Say on Pay proposal garnered only 37%).
Having led a less-than-spirited proxy battle that flew under the radar of most investors, CtW is wasting no time claiming victory on CNBC, noting that “twice the level” of no votes were achieved over last year. CtW apparently is forgetting that it was attempting to fire Mack and six other directors, all of whom received 90%+ backing and kept their jobs.
For the record, if this how CtW judges victory, we at ProxyMatters.com wouldn’t want CtW to be in control of our pension fund. “We lost 90% of your retirement savings in six months… victory!”
Moving the goalposts is a common tactic in politics, but Wall Streeters are a little more savvy when it comes to lazy chicanery. Not admitting defeat is a simple way to lose credibility with investors and corporate management alike.
