At the annual meeting, shareholders made their dissatisfaction known, with votes on directors and executive payAs Dottie Weber ambled into Yahoo!'s annual shareholder meeting on June 12, she was expecting fireworks. "It's going to be an angry meeting," predicted the self-described "small" Yahoo investor, who noted that Yahoo's stock has been languishing for more than a year as it has lost ground to archrival Google (GOOG). "A lot of shareholders are fed up. I'm thinking of selling."
Contrary to her prediction, the meeting proved rather sedate, as fewer than 150 shareholders attended and only a few spoke up to criticize the company. Nonetheless, no small number made it clear with their proxy votes that they're unhappy with Yahoo's (YHOO) lagging stock price—down 20% from its 52-week high of $33.74 in July—and Chief Executive Terry Semel's $71.7 million pay package last year. Nearly 33% of stockholders opposed the reelection of at least one Yahoo director.
While that means the slate was reelected, the preliminary vote indicates that investors heeded various shareholder advocates who called for "withhold" votes on some directors. Three shareholder advisory firms—Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass, Lewis & Co., and Proxy Governance—recommended opposing directors Roy Bostock, Ron Burkle, and Arthur Kern, who make up Yahoo's compensation committee. The groups said Semel's pay package was excessive given Yahoo's recent performance.
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