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Shareholders Back Governance Reforms at Comcast
Philadelphia, Pa. -- Shareholders at the Comcast Communications annual meeting today made a strong bid to reform corporate governance at the company.
A proposal calling for a recapitalization that would establish a one vote per one share structure, introduced by the Communications Workers of America Members' Relief Fund, gained just shy of a majority of voted shares – 49.96 percent -- when the one-third of votes controlled by the Roberts family (Brian Roberts is Comcast's chief executive officer) is removed from the count.
This proposal has received significant support from major institutional investors and proxy advisory services. CEO Roberts, who owns just one percent of the company, is guaranteed 33.3 percent of the total voting power, CWA District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano said.
This means that the shareholders who are taking the actual investment risk are marginalized by the voting strength of the Roberts block, he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies are governed by a one-share, one-vote process. Comcast did not want this proposal included on the meeting agenda but was overruled by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A second proposal filed by the AFL-CIO – calling for an independent board of directors – gained 40.5 percent of the non-Roberts voting block. The AFL-CIO has called for two-thirds of the Comcast board members to be independent of the company, as defined by the Council of Institutional Investors. Currently, most of the directors have business ties or other connections to Comcast.
More information is available at www.comcastvoteno.com
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A proposal calling for a recapitalization that would establish a one vote per one share structure, introduced by the Communications Workers of America Members' Relief Fund, gained just shy of a majority of voted shares – 49.96 percent -- when the one-third of votes controlled by the Roberts family (Brian Roberts is Comcast's chief executive officer) is removed from the count.
This proposal has received significant support from major institutional investors and proxy advisory services. CEO Roberts, who owns just one percent of the company, is guaranteed 33.3 percent of the total voting power, CWA District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano said.
This means that the shareholders who are taking the actual investment risk are marginalized by the voting strength of the Roberts block, he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies are governed by a one-share, one-vote process. Comcast did not want this proposal included on the meeting agenda but was overruled by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A second proposal filed by the AFL-CIO – calling for an independent board of directors – gained 40.5 percent of the non-Roberts voting block. The AFL-CIO has called for two-thirds of the Comcast board members to be independent of the company, as defined by the Council of Institutional Investors. Currently, most of the directors have business ties or other connections to Comcast.
More information is available at www.comcastvoteno.com
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