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Hosted by: Dick Gordon
Show Originally Aired: 6/30/2004 CALL 1 800-423-TALK
Power to the people
Green and white proxy votes sent to Hewlett Packard company shareholders on proposed merger with Compaq. (AP) Email to friend
The annual shareholder meeting used to resemble a cheerleading competition -- with executives and investors alike shaking those corporate pom-poms. But these days many such meetings look more like protest rallies -- with shareholders, issuing demands and forcing votes on resolutions on everything from how a company invests its money, to how it picks and how much it pays its executives.
Shareholder activists say that they're fed up with corporate scandals and want a greater say in shaping company policy. Most of these resolutions are non-binding and executives are free to ignore them, but - post-Enron - they do so at their peril. At the same time, some executives are pushing back, arguing that CEOs know best - and that shareholders should stop meddling.
