Sky Blog
Beyond the cacophonous din of voices calling for companies to serve a “social purpose,” adopt a variety of governance proposals, achieve quarterly performance targets, and listen to (and indeed even “think like”) activists, there is now, most promisingly, a call …
With the vast majority of annual meetings set to be held in the coming weeks, the contours of the 2018 proxy season are coming into focus. While previous years are remembered for defining initiatives — “say on pay” in 2011, …
Late last year, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a no-action letter in which it agreed that a proposal seeking to lower the threshold for calling a special meeting from 25 percent to 10 percent of the outstanding shares …
On November 16, 2017, Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) issued its updated proxy voting guidelines for the upcoming 2018 proxy season. Notable updates applicable to U.S. companies include new or revised policies:
The SEC Division of Corporate Finance recently provided useful guidance on excluding certain Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposals (Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I). While helpful, we hope the SEC will undertake a much-needed comprehensive review of Rule 14a-8, including …
Over the past few decades, the ownership of public corporations has been turned on its head. While private individuals owned approximately two-thirds of U.S. equities in 1970, today it is institutional investors like Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street that control …
Previous research on shareholder voting has placed most of the emphasis on the role of institutional shareholders. In our recent study, however, we provide evidence that managers strategically rely on the support offered by retail shareholders to ensure that their …
The two most influential proxy advisory firms–Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis)–recently released their updated proxy voting guidelines for 2017. The key changes to the ISS and Glass Lewis policies are described below along with …
On October 26, 2016 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed proxy rule amendments that would require, in a contested election of directors, the public company and the shareholder activist to each use a “universal” proxy card – i.e., a …
To date, nearly 300 companies have adopted proxy access bylaws, including over 40 percent of S&P 500 companies. Given the widespread adoption of proxy access by large U.S. companies, it was only a matter of time before a shareholder actually …
Individual investors are active participants in the shareholder resolution process. According to Proxy Monitor, shareholder proposals sponsored by individual investors represent approximately one-quarter of the total number of shareholder resolutions voted on each year.[1] During the 10-year period 2006-2015, individual …
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act provided shareholders of U.S. public corporations the right to vote on chief executive officers’ compensation, at least every three years. The so–called say on pay vote is advisory but was designed to curb overly generous executive …
In Rule v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company,[1] our client challenged MassMutual’s 2014 Proxy Statement seeking to change its company bylaws. The Proxy told the over 1 million policyholder-owners that the proposed bylaw changes were consistent with the …
Herd behavior is a widely used notion met in different contexts and disciplines, from neurology and zoology to sociology, psychology, economics and finance. In economics and finance the term herd behavior usually suggests the process where agents tend to imitate …
The message of the Dow/DuPont merger and split up is simple: No firm is today “too big to target.” Activists can see the transaction as evidence that, even in the rare case where they lose a proxy fight (as they …
Ethan Allen and its management prevailed a few weeks ago against an intense hedge fund activist campaign to remove its entire board of directors.
An analyst of one of our larger shareholders, the Gabelli funds, observed “I’ve never seen a …
Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis recently issued its U.S. voting policy guidelines for the 2016 proxy season. The guidelines include a few key changes, a summary of which is outlined below.
Conflicting Shareholder Proposals. Conflicting shareholder proposals relating to …
Recent econometric studies (“empirical evidence”) definitively rebut the position taken by the Harvard Law School Shareholder Rights Project (SRP) that classified boards are associated with lower firm value and inferior outcomes for shareholders. After correcting serious statistical and econometrical flaws…
There is a frenzied rush for shareholders to get a new ‘right”, the right to put up their own nominees for board membership. Boards of directors, so goes a dominant opinion, are not to be fully trusted to pick the …
Invigorating the shareholder proposal process is a top priority for corporate governance reformers. But the possibility that self-interested shareholders could use proposals to harass or pressure managers to accommodate their interests is a cause for concern. Union shareholders attract more …