How’s This For “Forced Transparency”? Citi Adds New Section To Its QRS On Reorganization Efforts – Following SEC Inquiries – And Big Fines For Failing To Make Progress On Internal Controls
Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Citi CEO Jane Fraser as she struggles to rein-in the wild and reckless horse that Citi had become after more than a decade of ‘deferred maintenance’ on its key operating systems and their internal controls. But OUCH! As...
Perfect Timing As The “Independent Transparency Subcommittee” Announces “The 30 Most Transparent Companies In The US!”
A truly Blue-Ribbon Panel of Experts, Chaired by Broc Romanek, hits the streets just as public companies begin to jumpstart their AGM pre-planning activities and, ideally, to anticipate, and proactively address the most important issues that will be on the minds of...
Stock Splits Are Back In Fashion: Three Cheers, We Say
We are huge fans of stock splits (forward splits, that is) for a lot of reasons. We realized that we last wrote about them ten years ago, when there was a sudden upsurge, much like we are seeing now – like at Nvidia (10 for 1) Walmart (3 for 1) and Chipotle with a...
Top Takeaways From The 2024 “Big Meeting Season”
INVESTORS DON’T CARE ABOUT “TOO-HIGH CEO PAY” – At least as long as they themselves are in the black – witness the strong support the move to have shareholders ratify Elon Musk’s massive award of options racked up after a Delaware judge ruled it was wrongly awarded by...
Reader Alert: “Endemic Sloppiness” In 2024 AGM Materials
As most readers know, we think, our ‘sister company’ – CT Hagberg LLC - fields a team of 45 expert Inspectors of Election who, through July, will have served at well over 500 companies. This – plus your two editors’ own stock portfolios – causes us to monitor over 700...
The Top Two VSMs – One Middlin’ One – And One “Most In Need Of Improvement” Of The 2024 VSMs We Monitored
The Top-Two 2024 VMs – A Two-Way Tie Between Citi And Verizon AT CITIGROUP – A WELL-RUN, HIGHLY ENGAGING AND INFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE…We were especially anxious to tune in the Citigroup VSM this year because we are huge fans of CEO Jane Fraser and continue to bet that...
Drops In Retail Investor Voting Continue: A Four-Alarm Fire, We Say – Start Now On Plans To Do Better
We have been writing about the drop in retail investor voting ever since the Notice and Access model went into effect. We have no beef with the IDEA behind the “model” – which has saved literally billions of dollars for issuers – but we can see that it has become a...
The ‘Biggest New Thing?’- A Double-Binding Bylaw Proposal
Activist investor Michael Levin and the editor of The Activist Investor (TAI) - inspired by the Tesla-proposed settlement of Musk’s comp-case to allow a (non-binding) vote on DIRECTOR COMPENSATION has since filed binding bylaw proposals to require shareholder approval...
Holy Moley! Exxon’s Suit Vs. Former Proponents, Followed By A Three-Page Screed In Their Proxy Statement, Draws Anger – And Two Exempt Solicitations As The AGM Ramps Up. Who’ll Stop The Madness Here?
Initially, we were sort of on board with the lawsuits Exxon filed against two shareholder proponents to ‘teach them a lesson’ to be more thoughtful about filing shareholder proposals. And yes, we are very much in sympathy with the idea that there are way too many...
Our Take On The Disney Contest: Much To Ponder And To Learn From We Say
The Walt Disney Company released the official vote counts on April 4th from its 2024 meeting of shareholders held April 3rd - much faster than it usually takes to do so, we were happy to note - where they said “investors decisively defeated” the campaign by activist...
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.