Lisa Fairfax reports that:
Yesterday, Exxon shareholders voted against all eleven of the shareholders proposals on the company’s proxy statement. So it appears that the extra effort to reach out to mutual fund shareholders did not have the desired impact on the vote. In fact, the proposal to split the CEO and chair functions garnered only 29.5% of the vote, a ten percent decrease from last year. Moreover, despite the extra outreach by shareholders, Exxon’s annual meeting was notable because of the lack of protesters outside of the meeting place. So perhaps the meeting and its outcome reveal that the financial crisis has had an impact on shareholder activism, making shareholders more hesitant to rock the boat and less willing to support initiatives that may impinge on managers’ discretion or otherwise pressure them to divert resources on green initiatives, despite assertions that such initiatives could improve the financial bottom-line in the long term.
It just goes to show, perhaps, that shareholder activism is an expensive indulgence for people with too much time on their hands. Like other luxury items, it may disappear during bad times, even though certain people would have you believe that these sort of times are when it is needed most.
Target Corp.'s shareholders have re-elected the company's slate of directors, rejecting a hedge fund's alternate slate, according to preliminary vote totals.William Ackman had sought for months to put up his own slate — including himself — to the Minneapolis-based retailer's board of directors. ...
Shareholders also sided with the company in approving a measure that sets the board's size at 12 members.
Yet, the SEC and the Congress doubtless will continue pressing for pro-activism "reforms."
