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
Computershare: Full Service Under One Roof
An Interview With Jay McHale, President, US Equity Services, Computershare
Reactions To The Proxy Plumbing Comment Letters…
An Interview With Chuck Callan, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Broadridge Financial Solutions
Reaching Out To Investors… When Time Is Of The Essence? And There’s No Quick Solution On Your Shelf
The Optimizer Editor’s Annual Interview With Ellen Philip And Cal Donly Of Ellen Philip Associates
Reaching Out To Investors Via The Proxy Statement
The Optimizer Interviews Dannette Smith, Secretary To The Board Of Unitedhealth Group, Incorporated, The Winner Of Corporate Secretary Magazine’s 2010 Award For Best Proxy Statement
Reaching Out To Institutional Investors
Some Thoughts – And Lots Of Practical Tips – From Steven L. Brown, Director Of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREF
Laurel Hill Advisory Group
An Interview With Dr. William J. Catacosinos, Chairman Of Laurel Hill Advisory Group, LLC And His Senior Colleagues
Key Industry Organizations Totally Miss The Point, We Say… And Don’T Help The Corporate Cause At All…
And Don’t Help The Corporate Cause At All… In Their Actual And “Model Responses” To Proposed Changes In The “Broker May Vote” Rule… Basically Flicking A Finger At The NYSE And Its Proxy Rule Committee
A First-Hand Report From The Intel “Virtual Annual Meeting”… And A Heads Up On The Broadridge Virtual Meeting In November
Your editor had the honor to serve as the Inspector of Election at Intel’s 2009 annual meeting, the first “virtual annual meeting” ever.
Issuers Get A Stay Of Execution On Direct Proxy Access… But It’s Coming To Our Neighborhood Soon, We Guarantee:
The SEC – which was expected to vote on Direct Access to the corporate proxy machinery for the purpose of nominating director candidates on Nov. 8th, announced in early October that it would delay a vote on the final rules until early 2010 – to be sure that they would “get itright.”
“Small” And “Mid-Sized Transfer Agents” – And A Quick Look At The “Biggies” Too
We’ve been expecting to have at least one really big story about Transfer Agency consolidation for well over six months now. But in the meanwhile, we’ve been amazed at how many questions we’ve been getting from issuers about “small transfer agents”.
“The Noughties”
As Y2k09 came to an end, it was quite an unpleasant shock for boosters of long-term investing like us to realize that for most individual investors – especially those who faithfully followed a “buy and hold” approach – the entire decade of the 2000s came to naught…and to NOUGHT – to a big fat zero .
Everything You Need To Know About Notice & Access… And About E-Proxies Too
We continue to be amazed by the number of corporate citizens – and by the number of their law firms and other advisors too – who are still confused about Notice and Access.
Intel Prepares To Launch The First-Ever “Virtual Annual Meeting” – Featuring On-Line, Real-Time Voting
This is the beginning of a totally new approach to Annual Meetings, and one that will ultimately result in a totally new A-M paradigm, we think.
