Tumult In The Proxy Solicitation Industry As The “Assets” Take The Elevators Down At Night… And Ride New Ones Up Next Day
Issuers Ask, “Who Moved My Cheese?” And “Who’s Who In This Suddenly Crazy Space?” And “What, If Anything, Should We Be Doing?”
OMG! The Fastest Way To Vote Proxies In 2010 Turns Out To Be Snail-Mail!
This year we are paying much closer attention to the proxy packages we receive than we ever did before. And we know we’re far from alone here, although how carefully most other individual investors will attend to these matters…
“Dofra”, “Dodfra”, “Direct Access” And The “Proxy Plumbing Release”… Get Out Those Plumbers-Helpers Pronto!
Whether you call it “DOFRA” as Pat McGurn calls it, or “DODFRA”, to give Dodd and Frank equal billing, the Dodd-Frank act passed both houses of congress as we were drafting this issue and will likely be law before we go to press.
Meanwhile, Some T-As Agitate To Compete Against Broadridge For Some Of Their Gigantic Proxy Distribution And Tabulation Business; Most, We Think, Have Missed That Boat Entirely:
Long before the Broadridge entry onto T-A-turf – for roughly 20 years in fact – transfer agents have been protesting the “lock” that Broadridge has on the street-side proxy distribution and tabulation business.
Yikes! The Transfer Agent Merry-Go-Round Has Been Whirling At A Faster And More Furious Pace Than Ever
Every year around this time – for 16 years now – we’ve been reporting on the “T-A Merry-Go-Round”, which has been whirling faster and faster every year – at least where the competitive scene is concerned.
Transfer Agents: Gotta Have’em… Gotta Love’em
Sometimes it seems that the OPTIMIZER picks on transfer agents a lot – as lots of public companies seem to do too these days. Partly it’s because it’s such a tough business to run well in the best of times.
Meeting Admission Criteria – One Of This Year’s Hottest Topics
So far this year, we’ve gotten more questions about annual and special meeting admission criteria than about any other topic…except that is, for the perennial question “what’s up with those transfer agents?”
Some “Early Returns” From The Annual Meeting Front:
It’s still early-days as we write this, but a few trends are emerging that seem worth a mention
These May Be Our Top-Tips Ever On How To Guarantee A More “Civil” Annual Meeting
Last year, we attended the meeting of a long-term client where we were shocked! Shocked!…to see more women wearing hats and gloves – and more men carrying hats – than we have seen in one place since the 1950s.
An Interim Report On Virtual Annual Meetings
Guess what? It’s been nine years since the first “virtual only” annual meeting…at Inforte…
Our 2010 Meeting Season Roundup
What, If Anything, Can We Learn – To Better Prepare For 2011?
Some Notes From The Virtual-Meeting Front
So far this season, there have been 20 “Virtual Shareholder Meetings”: About half were “totally virtual meetings” – held totally in cyberspace – and the rest were so-called “hybrid virtual meetings”
A Recordbreaking Number Of Glitches Cross Our Desk In The Spring 2010 Annual Meeting Season
Indicative, We Think, Of A Serious Level Of “Inattention To Details” And A Serious Industry Brain-Drain
A Few Hot Issues To Watch As Annual Meeting Season Approaches
Great news for public companies, though bad news for most proxy solicitors, the 2011 Proxy Season seems to be shaping up as the least contentious one in a decade or more:
More On Virtual Meetings: We Come Up With A Simple Solution To Activist Objections To “Virtual Only” Formats
Regular readers know that we have been following developments on the “Virtual Only” Annual and Special Meeting front from the get-go, and that we are big fans of the concept – and especially of the big potential money-savings that can be realized.
More On Virtual Forums: Maybe The Best Good Governance Idea Ever
While Virtual Meetings have been getting lots of notice of late, we think that Virtual Investor Forums have the potential to transform the corporate governance landscape in an even bigger and better way
Transfer Agents Are Facing Multi-Million Dollar Investments To Be Ready For Cost-Basis Reporting… And Perhaps, For More Backup Withholding By Money-Starved State Governments
An Interim Rreport On Virtual Annual Meetings A reader emailed us after our last issue to ask why we haven’t been covering the Cost-Basis Reporting scene…after lots of earlier coverage, where we correctly predicted that there was absolutely no way it could be enforced...And… As If Those Poor T-As Don’t Have Troubles Enough, How About State-Mandated Backup Withholding From Dividend And Interest Checks?
Thanks to reader Tom Montrone, the President of Registrar & Transfer Company, for reminding us of yet another issue that’s flown beneath the usual radar screens but which, we predict, may well burst from the blue to harass T-As and their clients. So far, only two...Time To Take A Look At Your Bylaws, We Say… To Make Sure They Do Not Have Conflicting Voting Provisions
And Maybe To Consider Moving To A “Simple Majority Vote” To Pass All But The Most Economically Important Proposals A lot of speculation went on last year and this about the potential effect of the “broker may NOT vote rule”…which turned out to be mainly a non-issue...Some Notes On The Much-Bashed Symantec Virtual Meeting
s mentioned elsewhere in this issue, activist investors, the press, and assorted other “noisemakers” sure piled onto Symantec Corporation, following their first-ever totally virtual annual meeting. We were kind of glad they did…first because it proved the point we...Optimizer To Activists And Noisemakers Re: Virtual Meetings: You Folks Are Really Missing The Boat Here!
Despite the many good things your editor, and other managers and consumers of Virtual Meetings have to say about them, they’ve been coming under heavy fire of late. Activist Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management has presented Intel, Broadridge Financial Solutions and...Reaching Out To Directors
REACHING OUT TO DIRECTORS WITH SOME GOOD DIRECTOR EDUCATION PROGRAMS: Those gosh-darned university off-sites aimed at Directors seem to be proliferating like flies on a warm mincemeat pie – although lately, a bit of much needed consolidation seems to be afoot. The...Tales From The Crypt
Horror Stories About The Perils Of Holding Abandoned Property From The Optimizer’s Story Vault… All Of Them Absolutely True.
From States “Reaching Out” To Shareowner “Out Reach”
“To reverse the detrimental effects of these state ‘reach out’ initiatives, issuers and transfer agents must be proactive in maintaining shareowner contact to curtail securities escheatment.”
Wells Fargo Shareowner Services
An Interview With Todd May
