6 posts and columns on Broadridge Financial Solutions

The Yahoo Annual Meeting Circus Rolls Back Into Town Next Week: Send in the Clowns?

in News on June 18, 2009 at 4:45 am PT

In exactly one week at 10 am PDT, Yahoo will hold its annual meeting in Silicon Valley, the first time when new CEO Carol Bartz will greet its shareholders in person. She should prep carefully, as the event has been quite a drama over the last two years. Here’s a rundown of what is likely to be on the minds of investors, including the status of the isn’t-it-rich-aren’t-they-a-pair relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft.
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Voices

After Vote-Gate, Heads Must Roll on Yahoo's Board

in News on August 6, 2008 at 5:00 pm PT

To anyone who says that it’s inconsequential that Yahoo understated the level of shareholder dissatisfaction by more than half thanks to a “tabulation error” by its proxy counter, Broadridge, I say: You couldn’t be more wrong. This incident will have ramifications in the coming weeks for the composition of Yahoo’s board.

New Yahoo Shareholder Vote: Yang Disapproval More Than Doubles

in News on August 5, 2008 at 2:06 pm PT

The vote is now in and it’s not so pretty for Yahoo, as it turns out. Broadridge Financial Solutions’ corrected tabulation of the vote at the Yahoo annual meeting on Aug. 1, without the “truncation errors,” came out and shareholders are actually mighty irked at Yahoo leadership. Most glaringly, it shows Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s disapproval more than double what was previously reported, rising from 14.6 percent votes withheld to 33.7 percent. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock increased from 20.5 percent withheld votes to 39.5 percent. Yang, who has been under fire for his management of Yahoo, is likely to now endure yet another round of questioning about whether he should stay in his job in the wake of this clearly massive show of disapproval by investors.

Broadridge to Yahoo: Oops, We Added Wrong (and Shareholders Like You Lots Less)!

in News on August 5, 2008 at 10:07 am PT

Here’s the full statement from the outside firm that tabulated Yahoo’s recent shareholder vote. Bottom line: An underreporting of shares withheld for certain directors, which the Lake Success, N.Y., firm is calling a “truncation error.” That sounds painful. And it is likely Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will feel much of that pain, as sources said the shares are largely those that were withheld from him by disgruntled shareholders. The mistake will not change the vote’s overall outcome, but it will surely make Yang’s no-vote tally worse.

The Yahoo Shareholder Vote: Like Florida, Except More Confusing!

in News on August 5, 2008 at 6:50 am PT

All Yahoo needs now is for former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to show up and start recounting votes. It could happen, given all the crazy characters who have been drawn to the much-beleaguered Internet company like a magnet, in 2008. It’s almost as if there is a voodoo curse on Yahoo and, so, you didn’t think the digital gods would let it have more than one weekend of good news, did you? No, they will not, it seems.

Yahoo Shareholder Vote Number-Crunching–Whither Cap Re's No Vote?

in News on August 4, 2008 at 2:39 pm PT

There is a mini-tempest brewing over how shares were tallied in the Yahoo annual meeting last Friday, specifically around whether a group of votes withheld by one of Yahoo’s major shareholders was not counted, counted incorrectly or even voted incorrectly by the investor. According to sources close to the thinking at Capital Research & Management, the proxy committees for its two large funds that hold a significant stake in Yahoo recommended last week that they withhold votes specifically from CEO Jerry Yang and from various board members, such as Chairman Roy Bostock, to register disappointment with their performance. Thus, sources said, the investment fund has approached outside vote tabulator Broadridge Financial Solutions, a Lake Success, N.Y.-based financial services company that does securities clearing and processing, about whether those votes were correctly counted.