Time to regulate ISS and Glass Lewis

Steven Davidoff reports that:

The annual proxy season battle between shareholders and corporations appears to have reached a tipping point in favor of shareholders this year. ...

Activists owe part of their success to I.S.S. and a rival, Glass, Lewis & Company. I.S.S. in particular is followed by many mutual funds and other institutional investors, and studies have found that it can sway up to 10 percent of the vote and much more in highly public elections. And it often recommends in favor of the dissidents. 

I discuss ISS and Glass Lewis at some length in my Corporate Governance after the Financial Crisis. In it, I argue that ISS has gotten too powerful, has too many conflicts of interest, and is too biased against management. It's time for it to get reined in.