"Devastated" was a term I heard recently used in describing the expectations for the retail vote during this year’s proxy season. This individual is in a pretty good position to judge for his firm provides shareholder services.
Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments
to the proxy rules under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended,
with the purpose of improving certain aspects of the notice and access method
for delivering proxy materials to shareholders.
Currently, the SEC allows issuers to deliver proxy materials to shareholders
through two methods: A) full set delivery, which means that an issuer
sends a full paper set of the proxy materials to its shareholders along with
posting the proxy materials on the Internet; and B) notice and access, which
allows the issuer to provide notice of Internet availability of its proxy materials
to its shareholders.
The 2010 proxy season presents some challenges for the IRO, particularly in light of the end of broker discretionary voting for uncontested director elections, the amendment to Rule 452 which passed in July. While much has been written on the subject, we’ll provide a little background as well as some strategies to survive the upcoming proxy year… Read more…
Corporate America may be breathing a sigh of relief at least for the moment
that is… As of now it looks highly unlikely that the SEC will vote to
adopt proxy access or SEC Rule 14a-11 in time for the 2010 proxy season.
If adopted this rule would enable stockholder groups, such as activist hedge
funds or institutional investors, to place director candidates on a company’s
proxy materials at the target company’s expense. This compares to the
current system under which dissonant groups foot the bill for proxy mailings
in their efforts to unseat a current board. The costs of such an undertaking
can sometimes deter an activist.