Cisco ($CSCO) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up on 11/15/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org had collected the votes of five funds when I voted on 11/8/2012. I voted with management 83% of the time. View Proxy Statement. Warning: Be sure to vote each item on the proxy. Any items left blank will be […]
Archive | November, 2012
Video Friday: EU on Gender Balance in Boardroom & Apple Shuffle
James McRitchie, 11/09/2012 ,
Watch the Bloomberg Businessweek discussion and get an update on the EU debate on female representation in boardrooms. Interview of experts also includes insights on women added value in (more…)
Turkey's e-GEM Beats Broadridge at Shareowner Communication
James McRitchie, 11/08/2012 ,
Turkey became the first country to require issuers to offer electronic proxy voting with the 1 October inauguration of a voting platform from MKK called e-GEM. The system will stream annual general meetings (AGMs) real time and let shareowners communicate with each other, vote before the meeting, and even change their vote as an annual […]
Expect a More Active Proxy Season
James McRitchie, 11/07/2012 ,
The 2012 edition of Shareholder Activism Insight sees increasing opposition from shareowners during the next proxy season, according to 78% of respondents. Fully 84% predict an increase in the number of shareholder proposals with the financial services sector hit the hardest. One quarter of corporate executives think 30% or more of shareowner proposals will obtain […]
Prospective Wealth Transfer and the Signaling Role of Accounting Conservatism in Debt Contracts
James McRitchie, 11/06/2012 ,
This October paper by Jeffrey L. Callen, Feng Chen, Yiwei Dou, and Baohua Xin shows analytically and empirically that the relation between conservatism and covenants is conditioned on the extent of information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders. (more…)
Netflix: A Candidate for Proxy Access
James McRitchie, 11/06/2012 ,
Netflix Inc. (NFLX), which has lost half its value in the last two years, adopted an antitakeover plan (poison pill) intended to block activist investor Carl Icahn from expanding his nearly 10% stake. They did so without seeking shareowner approval and the pill may make it harder to find a buyer. Writing for the WSJ, Miriam Gottfried notes, Netflix […]
Heavy PAC CSR's Correlated with Higher Stock Returns
James McRitchie, 11/05/2012 ,
Companies that tout social responsibility and whose managers contribute to political action committees tend to provide higher returns to shareholders, suggests a new University of California, Davis, study Strange Bedfellows? – Voluntary CSR Disclosure and Politics. (more…)
Call for Papers: Inside the Board Room
James McRitchie, 11/03/2012 ,
Since the Cadbury Report was published in 1992 in the UK, there has been increasing emphasis not just by UK regulators but also by regulators from other countries, including the USA and Continental Europe, of the role of boards of directors in corporate governance. However, 20 years down the line it is still uncertain whether […]
Video Friday: Use of Social Media By Senior & Board Level Executives is Pitiful
James McRitchie, 11/02/2012 ,
Less than a third of companies today use social media to support their corporate strategy and risk management practices, according to new research conducted by Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Center for Leadership Development and Research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and The Conference Board. What Do Corporate Directors and Senior Managers Know about […]
ESOP Firms Fare Better: Where are the Presidential Candidates?
James McRitchie, 11/01/2012 ,
Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) companies saw an economic upturn in 2011, with higher productivity and stock price, according to a recent survey. Why aren’t the Presidential candidates pushing the benefits of employee ownership and participation? (more…)