MAJOR PROXY SOLICITORS WILL RECOMMEND OUR “VOTES HAVE VALUE” BOOKLET TO CLIENTS THIS SEASON
The OPTIMIZER is very pleased to announce that many of the best proxy solicitation firms will be recommending to clients that they use our educational booklet, “Shareholder Votes Have Value”© this season as part of the overall 2026 campaign - especially those with...
THE RISKS OF LAWSUITS FROM “DISSED PROPONENTS” ARE REAL ONES, ISSUERS: DON’T LET MORE SHAREHOLDER DOLLARS GO TO WASTE, WE SAY, BUT STAND FIRM IF A PROPOSAL IS WEAK
The ink was hardly dry on the SEC release on no no-action letters when three thwarted proponents went to court to seek relief, as we predicted many would do. Four NYC public pension funds sued AT&T in New York federal court over its decision to exclude a workforce...
Reinventing Proxy Voting: Empowering Shareholders in the Digital Era
Cathy H. Conlon Senior Vice President & General Manager, Disclosure, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. A Brief Look Back A cornerstone of corporate governance is proxy voting – the main mechanism by which shareholders exercise their rights and influence how a...
Podcast Alert: Annual Meeting Season 2026 — Expert Advice from Carl & Peder Hagberg
Carl and Peder Hagberg of The Shareholder Service OPTIMIZER join Meredith Ervine from TheCorporateCounsel.net to discuss proxy season risks, virtual meetings, and shareholder engagement for 2026. Listen to hear their insights on this year’s annual meeting season....
Retail Investors Take the Mic: Engaging the Modern Shareholder
Retail Influence on the Rise The 2025 proxy season highlighted a paradox the OPTIMIZER has long noted: retail shareholders are more important than ever, yet remain seriously under-engaged when it comes to actually voting their proxies. At many large-cap companies,...
2025 Was The 90th Anniversary Of The Proxy Solicitation Business: A Quick Look At The “Highlights And Lowlights” And A Closer Look At Where It Stands Today
It’s been 90 years since the Nye family turned its brokerage business, Georgeson & Co., into a “proxy-chasing business” in 1935 – a time when individual investments in stocks had become very big business and voted proxies were very much in demand at Shareholder...
2025 MARKS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF “NOTICE AND ACCESS” – THE BEST “PUSH-MODEL” EVER!
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SAVED. BUT NOW, IT DESPERATELY NEEDS A FIX: A “PULL-MODEL” THAT WORKS – AND A RADICAL RE-ORDERING OF REQUIRED INFO Issuers of securities should be sounding big cheers for 25 years of Notice and Access – which has saved tens of billions of dollars...
Turmoil In Proxy Land: Why It’s More Important Than Ever To Have Truly Expert Outside Counsel On Your Team
In our 30+ years of deep involvement in shareholder meetings, proxy voting, proxy contests, shareholder activism, and corporate governance in general, we have NEVER seen an environment as volatile or as consequential as the one corporate issuers will face in 2026....
Turmoil In The Corporate Counsel Community
The Bloomberg Rankings Reveal Some Major Surprises – And Lots Of Surprisingly Missing Names On The Law Firm Side Of Proxy Fights… where, it should be noted, the lawyers are often instrumental in choosing the proxy solicitor… and some old-guard leaders are currently on...
Turmoil – And A Scary Amount Of Cluelessness – At The Sec
Senior members of the SEC seem to be hell-bent on a mission to totally demolish the regulatory framework that has been evolving since the Great Depression: As we noted in our last issue, Chairman Paul Atkins is laboring under the incredibly ill-informed idea that the...
Podcast Alert: Annual Meeting Season 2026 — Expert Advice from Carl & Peder Hagberg
Carl and Peder Hagberg of The Shareholder Service OPTIMIZER join Meredith Ervine from TheCorporateCounsel.net to discuss proxy season risks, virtual meetings, and shareholder engagement for 2026.
Listen to hear their insights on this year’s annual meeting season.