Tremendous editorial on splitting Chairman/CEO roles appears today in The Wall Street Journal written by Gary Wilson.
In addtion to laying out several well-founded points supporting split roles, Wilson reveals a stunning statistic of which even we were unaware: 65% of S&P 500 companies have the same person employed as both Chairman and CEO.
Wilson’s opinions carry added weight… he […]
Shareholder activists have won the revolution… so says today’s The Wall Street Journal.
But let’s not all fly off to Sardinia for that Kozlowski-like party yet.
A superficial article on the front cover of Section C includes some statistics about more board seats won, more resolutions adopted, etc. But nowhere does the author stop to ask, “If, since 2006, 218 companies have […]
Kudos to CtW Investment Group for bringing the issue of broker votes back to the forefront with their well-publicized letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox (read it here).
Long known to create a mighty conflict of interest for any brokerage firm trying to win corporate investment business, broker votes go against the grain of every major piece of financial […]
You know that you’re into something sexy when PBS comes knocking.
A week ago, PBS’s Nightly Business Report presented a quick snapshot of this year’s proxy season and some of its key players.
“Trouble at the Top: Proxy Fights 2008″ (click here) includes comments from AFSCME’s Richard Ferlauto.
“Roundtable Review of Corporate Governance” (click here), “Trouble at the Top: Shareholder […]
Look up ”corporate gadfly” in the dictionary, and you’ll find Evelyn Y. Davis.
Click here to view this video gem, CNBC’s annual interview with the Queen of Annual Meetings. A must see for all.
Take-Two recommended that its shareholders reject Electronic Arts’ $26/share purchase, with Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick citing…
“With one of the strongest portfolios of intellectual property in our business, a superb creative and business team, and a revitalization plan that is beginning to deliver results, Take-Two is uniquely positioned to create stockholder value in an industry that […]
$240 billion pension fund giant CalPERS is shaking the ground at five companies, adding them to CalPERS’ Focus List of unperforming companies:
Cheesecake Factory
Hilb Rogal & Hobbs
Invacare
La-Z-Boy
Standard Pacific
Corporate governance complaints at these companies include staggered boards, restraints on shareholder voting, and unfriendly bylaws.
To read the startled reactions from these named companies as reported by Bloomberg, click here.
Perhaps one of the lesser known stories breaking from New York City this week involves The New York Times Company.
Long known as the private bastion of the controlling Sulzberger family, The Times opened the door slightly yesterday by allowing two dissident shareholder representatives to serve on its board. To accomodate, the board will increase from 13 […]
Ka-boom. I’ll let other blogs cover all the details, ramifications, and speculation in relation to New York’s top Democrat, Governor Eliot Spitzer, facing a federal probe for prostitution.
Perhaps Nell Minow best sums up Spitzer’s impact on corporate governance and shareholder rights, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal:
“I’m a huge fan of Eliot Spitzer, and I’ll be […]
Aflac gets the shareholder rights ball rolling this proxy season as it becomes the first publicly-traded company in the U.S. to offer shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation. Known as ’say on pay’, these advisory votes make economic sense for consumer-oriented companies such as Aflac. They also make great governance.
The Wall Street Journal gives a first look […]
