I get frequent alerts for news on shareowner activism from various sources. I’ve seen this press release sent out by Susman Godfrey L.L.P. concerning their win against a small shareowner pop up so many times I can no longer ignore it. (more…)
Archive | June, 2012
SEC Delivers For Shareowners On Proxy Access
James McRitchie, 06/29/2012 ,
USPX members’ efforts to advance proxy access got a boost today from SEC staff. Two companies, Forest Labs ($FRX) and Medtronic ($MDT), had sought no-action letters from Commission staff to allow them to exclude from their proxy materials the USPX model proxy access proposal. Both requests have been denied. (more…)
Video Friday: Fishing With Dynamite
James McRitchie, 06/29/2012 ,
Lynn Stout explains a bit about her ideas which challenge traditional views on corporate law and maximizing shareholder value. (more…)
The Blindness of Short-Term Thinking
James McRitchie, 06/28/2012 ,
‘Quarterly capitalism’ desperately needs tempering with long-term guidance This guest post by Mindy S. Lubber originally appeared in Pensions & Investments on Jun 25, 2012. (more…)
Best Broker For Obtaining Rule 14a-8 Letters: TDAmeritrade
James McRitchie, 06/27/2012 ,
I’ve decided to consolidate my accounts to TDAmeritrade, although I haven’t completed the process so please let me know if you think I’m making a mistake. I am an investor, not a trader, so the trading fees don’t matter much to me. My biggest concern is getting broker letters. However, only four firms were evaluated, […]
Wayback Machine
James McRitchie, 06/26/2012 ,
It has been months, maybe years, since we’ve slipped into the “wayback machine.” Here we go. Let’s have some fun. (more…)
Risky Music and Investment Managers
James McRitchie, 06/25/2012 ,
Economic theorists have suggested the possibility that preferences are dynamic and vary with environmental conditions. Are Risk-Preferences Dynamic? Within-Subject Variation in Risk-Taking as a Function of Background Music investigates such preference interactions as a possible explanation to why risk preferences can change. (more…)
Review: The Shareholder Value Myth
James McRitchie, 06/20/2012 ,
Like the Economics of Good and Evil by Tomas Sedlacek, Lynn Stout’s The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public is an exploration into the history and sociology of knowledge. While Sedlacek ambitiously tackles several myths at the core of economics, Stout focuses laserlike on the misconception that corporations are required to […]
If I Were on the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee: Recommendations to Help Retail Investors
James McRitchie, 06/19/2012 ,
The new SEC Investor Advisory Committee (SECIAC) met for the first time last week. It appears there may be agreement by Committee members to first concentrate their efforts on retail investors. At least that was the message of several Committee members and the expressed wish of Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar. The SECIAC would do well to recommend […]
Google: How I Voted – Proxy Score 42
James McRitchie, 06/18/2012 ,
Google ($GOOG) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/21/2012. Voting ends 6/20 on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 9 recommendations “from good causes,” including 3 consolidations, when I checked and voted on 6/17/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had information on 5 funds voting. I voted with management 42% of the time. (more…)
Double Feature: Divine Spring – Boards & Shareowners
James McRitchie, 06/15/2012 ,
June 11 – The Dean of St. John the Divine, Rev. Jim Kowalski, talks to Lucy P. Marcus about why a non-profit board needs diversity and why members need to ask tough questions. (more…)
MSCI & Aviva: Living in Glass Houses
James McRitchie, 06/14/2012 ,
I tagged this post (MSCI pays big dough to new CFO…) by Sonya Hubbard at Footnoted* a while back, mainly because I own a few shares of MSCI in my portfolio. (more…)
Guest Post: Performance of Indian Boards
James McRitchie, 06/13/2012 ,
The following is a guest post by by Sonia Jaspal from her blog, Sonia Jaspal’s RiskBoard, originally posted on June 12, 2012. I’ve added a few links, a couple of ads and reformatted the post slightly. (more…)
Guest Post: The High Cost of ERM Herd Mentality
James McRitchie, 06/12/2012 ,
Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) as a movement has been around for more than a decade. Unfortunately, a 2010 COSO survey disclosed that only limited progress has been made convincing senior management and boards that ERM is key to maximizing and safeguarding long term enterprise value, allocating expensive human and financial resources, or managing major risks […]
Companies Disclose Time Horizons During Earnings Calls
James McRitchie, 06/11/2012 ,
“Although short-termism may be fueled by investor pressure, it’s equally true that investors select companies for their time frames,” according to recent research by Francois Brochet, George Serafeim, and Maria Loumioti published in the Harvard Business Review. (more…)
Premiere Global Services: How I Voted – Proxy Score 11
James McRitchie, 06/09/2012 ,
Premiere Global Services ($PGI) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/13/2012. Voting ends 6/12 on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 3 recommendations “from good causes” when I checked and voted on 6/6/2012. However, two were consolidations, so they (more…)
Video Friday: Female CEOs Earn More for Shareowners but Paid Less
James McRitchie, 06/08/2012 ,
Equilar anchor Bonnie Day compares male and female compensation at the top, with key findings from the 2012 S&P 500 CEO (more…)
PIRC Journalism Award: Deadline Nears
James McRitchie, 06/07/2012 ,
There are three weeks left to enter the Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment Journalism Awards 2012. (more…)
DaVita: How I Voted – Proxy Score 54
James McRitchie, 06/07/2012 ,
DaVita ($DVA) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/11/2012. Voting ends 6/8 at 5 am ET on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform (early because of the weekend), which had 3 recommendations “from good causes” when I checked and voted on 6/6/2012. However, two were consolidations, so they really only had recommendations from […]
Proxy Access Win at Nabors (NBR)
James McRitchie, 06/06/2012 ,
As Joann Lublin reported in the WSJ, Nabors Owners Back Proxy Access Resolution. Shareowners finally won a proxy access proposal! As far as I’m concerned, the proposal is weak (3% stake held for 3 years) but it is a win none-the-less. (more…)
Biogen: How I Voted – Proxy Score 63
James McRitchie, 06/06/2012 ,
Biogen Idec (BIIB)($BIIB) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/8/2012. Voting ends on 6/7 at Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 6 recommendations “from good causes,” including 2 consolidations, when I checked and voted on 6/5. ProxyDemocracy.org had 6 funds voting. I voted (more…)
Review: Governance Reimagined – Risk Capital as Commons
James McRitchie, 06/05/2012 ,
Governance Reimagined: Organizational Design, Risk, and Value Creation (Wiley Finance) by David R. Koenig envisions a fundamental redesign based on a networked/distributive model centered around risk capital viewed as a “commons.” Like Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond, Koenig weaves together ideas from a wide variety of sources, exploding many myths […]
Cognizant Technology Solutions: How I Voted – Proxy Score 57
James McRitchie, 06/04/2012 ,
Better late than never. Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) ($CTSH) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/5/2012. Voting already ended on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 5 recommendations “from good causes,” including 2 consolidations, when I checked and voted on (more…)
Huge Win at Chesapeake
James McRitchie, 06/04/2012 ,
(Reuters) Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK) agreed to replace four current board members with new directors chosen by two of its largest shareholders, bowing to shareholder calls to improve corporate governance, just days shy of its annual meeting. (more…)
Emotional Intelligence
James McRitchie, 06/04/2012 ,
We need to do a better job of evaluating the emotional competency or our leaders. “A fine balance has to be maintained between technical and emotional competency of the individual and organization objectives and culture, wrote Sonia Jaspal back in 11/16/2011. Here is an excerpt from her argument, which deserves wider circulation. (more…)
Corporate Secretary: Consider an Ombuds Program
James McRitchie, 06/02/2012 ,
Is an ombudsman right for your company?, asks Aarti Maharaj in the current issue of Corporate Secretary. (more…)
Video Friday Triple Play: Shareholders Revolt & Equilar CEO Pay Study
James McRitchie, 06/01/2012 ,
BNN’s The Street is delivering an in-depth look at the growing number of shareholder uprisings. Activist investors are speaking out out at CP Rail, Yahoo, Astral Media and elsewhere. And, they’re not just taking on management. They’re winning their battles too. Click here for more. (more…)
IMAX: How I Voted – Proxy Score 25
James McRitchie, 06/01/2012 ,
IMAX ($IMAX) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 6/5/2012. Voting ends 6/4 on Moxy Vote’s proxy voting platform, which had 0 recommendations “from good causes” when I checked and voted on 5/31/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had 2 funds voting. I voted with management 25% of the time. (more…)