Shareholders

May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Carl Icahn, seeking to upend a $24.4 billion buyout of Dell Inc. by its founder and Silver Lake Management LLC, proposed an alternative that could enable investors keep their stakes in the computer maker. Under Icahn's plan, shareholders will be able to choose between a $12 a share cash distribution or $12 in additional shares valued at $1.65 apiece, according to a May 9 letter included in a filing today. Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc., which together own about 13 percent of Dell,...

As regulators wrestle with whether to force companies to disclose more about their political spending, an increasing number of shareholders are taking matters into their own hands, thrusting the issue before boards of directors at companies across the country. The number of shareholder proposals demanding more transparency in political spending has more than doubled since 2010, jumping from 61 to 128 this proxy season, according to the Sustainable Investments Institute, a research group that tracks the issue.

As a retired military officer, as well as a longtime investment professional, I consider myself well informed regarding government, investments and regulations. But I was confounded by the Aug. 4 Business story on the $33 million fine imposed on Bank of America. Just to make sure I'm clear on what is being said: -- Bank of America management allegedly misled shareholders regarding bonuses promised to employees of Merrill Lynch, which Bank of America was acquiring. -- Shareholders (including presumably millions of indirect mutual fund...

NEW YORK — Transocean Ltd. shareholders have voted out the oil drilling company's chairman and backed one of Carl Icahn's director nominees. But the oil driller said Friday that its stockholders decided against the billionaire investor's proposal for a $4 dividend. Under intense pressure from Icahn, J. Michael Talbert had already said that he would retire as chairman by November. He had been Transocean's CEO from 1994 to 2002 and served three terms as chairman before Friday's...

Shareholders of Gannett last week approved an $8.45 million pay package for the company's chief executive. The McLean-based media company, which owns USA Today, is one of the latest in a string of local firms to receive shareholder approval — in this case, 92.97 percent — for its compensation of top executives. Two years after the implementation of "say-on-pay" provisions — which allow shareholders to vote on proposed salaries, stock options and bonuses — analysts say not much has changed in the...

Count on it: This proxy season, investors will not be shy about giving company management a piece of their mind. Shareholders are expected to file more than 1,000 requests, called resolutions, asking companies for the chance to have a say about such hot topics as executive compensation, political contributions and how management addresses climate change, to name a few. Some of the petitions will make it onto proxy ballots, to be put to a vote at...

What good are shareholders? Not much, say Jay Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor, and Justin Fox, the editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, in whose current issue they outline the shortcomings and tally the surprisingly few benefits of shareholder capitalism. In theory, they begin, shareholders help corporations in three ways: They provide funding through their investments; they provide information through the supposedly evaluative pricing of corporate stock; and they provide discipline by...

J.P. Morgan Chase won approval of its purchase of Bear Stearns yesterday, shuttering an 85-year-old firm whose collapse ranks along with Drexel Burnham Lambert as one of the biggest in Wall Street history. Founded in 1923 by Joseph Bear and Robert Stearns at 100 Broadway in New York, Bear Stearns survived the Great Depression and first sold shares to the public in 1985, under then-chief executive Alan "Ace" Greenberg. Now, the company's brand name will all but vanish, and about 60 percent of Bear Stearns's 14,000...

There were few surprises in the list of shareholders released in Facebook's S-1 filing. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, unsurprisingly, topped the list of the biggest shareholders. Zuckerberg has 56.9 percent of the voting shares, followed by Accel Partners with 11.4 percent, James Breyer with 11.4 percent, co-founder Dustin Moskovitz with 7.6 percent, DST Global with 5.5 percent and entrepreneur Peter Thiel with 2.4 percent. The company's board of directors — including Washington Post Co. Chairman and...

BASEL, Switzerland, April 23 -- Shareholders of the Swiss bank UBS approved a $15 billion capital increase and replaced the chairman Wednesday in reaction to the fallout it has suffered from its exposure to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Some shareholders booed and hissed Peter Kurer, the former chief legal counsel named to replace Marcel Ospel as chairman. The company has been forced to write down $37.4 billion of its assets. It was the second round of capital increases, following a $12 billion...

DELL'S DOLDRUMS: Slumping personal computer maker Dell Inc. is still having trouble adapting to a market increasingly dominated by smartphones and tablets. Quarterly earnings plunged 79 percent as management slashed prices to spur sales. POINT: The dismal performance could help Dell's board persuade more shareholders to accept a $24.4 billion buyout offer from CEO Michael Dell and other investors. The board contends the price of $13.65 per share is a good deal in a time of adversity.

SAN FRANCISCO — Dell's financial decay worsened during its latest quarter as the company slashed its personal computer prices in response to the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets. The dismal performance announced Thursday provided the latest evidence of a technological shift that is making it difficult to sell laptop and desktop machines. Until recently, consumers had regularly replaced machines with faster ones every few years. The money is going...

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Struggling personal computer maker Dell will report its latest quarterly earnings ahead of schedule in a move likely to spur speculation that the results will be dismal. The schedule change announced Tuesday means Dell Inc. will release its fiscal first-quarter earnings after the market close this Thursday. The Round Rock, Texas, company had planned to report the results on May 21. Dell spokesman David Frink declined to say why the company...

Shareholders of Gannett last week approved an $8.45 million pay package for the company's chief executive. The McLean-based media company, which owns USA Today, is one of the latest in a string of local firms to receive shareholder approval — in this case, 92.97 percent — for its compensation of top executives. Two years after the implementation of "say-on-pay" provisions — which allow shareholders to vote on proposed salaries, stock options and bonuses — analysts say not much...

ROYALTY DEAL: Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. PLC said Monday it plans to pay $1 billion for the right to future royalties from four respiratory treatments being developed by Theravance Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline. THE DETAILS: The deal gives Elan 21 percent of the future royalties that South San Francisco, Calif.-based Theravance receives from Glaxo, a British drugmaker. The companies expect to close the royalty agreement at the end of June if Elan shareholders approve it. ...

INFORMATION PLEASE: A special committee of computer maker Dell Inc.'s board said Monday it needs details from shareholders Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management in order to consider their challenge to Michael Dell's $24.4 billion buyout plan. ICAHN CAN?: The committee wants to know more about how the Icahn and Southeastern plan would be financed and who would run the company, among other details. PUBLIC ACCESS: Icahn and Southeastern want to keep Dell...

Recent revelations of mammoth salaries paid to executives of firms pleading for financial assistance from the federal government [" Getting a Grip on Pay ," front page, Feb. 15] simply prove what I've suspected for many years: that the notion that corporations exist for the financial benefit of shareholders is in most cases a fallacy. A shareholder myself, I've always been intrigued by the shareholder "elections" these corporations conduct. Generally the elections consist of sending shareholders proxy cards that offer no real...

House Republicans are accusing the Securities and Exchange Commission of wasting time and money on a plan to make it easier for shareholders to oust members of corporate boards. The criticism comes days after a federal appeals court shot down the SEC plan. The court said the agency failed to do its homework before changing the rules of corporate elections last year to let shareholders put candidates on the official company ballots. Three senior members of the House Financial Services Committee called on the SEC to provide...

RICHMOND, Va. — A third shareholder has filed a federal lawsuit against Star Scientific Inc., the Virginia company at the center of a federal investigation whose ties to top Republicans are being examined. Marty Cole filed the lawsuit this week in federal court in Richmond. Two others were filed in March in Virginia and Massachusetts. Each claim the company misled investors. The latest lawsuit was first reported Friday by the Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/13njSzd).