On golden coffins…
Last week, investors at Johnson Controls (JCI) defeated a proposal by Amalgamated Bank to ban so-called golden coffin arrangements — deals that as the WSJ reported last June pay “huge corporate payouts to their heirs if they die in office.” The proposal is a new one that so far (and the season is still early) has found its way onto three proxies this year.
In addition to Johnson Controls, Amalgamated also brought a similar shareholder resolution at The Shaw Group (SGR), which will vote on the proposal this Wednesday and AFSCME, the large labor union, has introduced its own version at Disney (DIS), which filed its proxy a week ago Friday. Disney shareholders will vote on the proposal at its annual meeting on March 10.
What’s interesting is that while all three shareholder proposals use the words “golden coffins” none of the responses from the respective boards use that language. At Disney, for example, the program is called “the Family Income Assurance Plan” which sounds significantly better than “golden coffins”. In the proxy, Disney notes that it started the program 30 years ago and that at least for the past few years “the Plan has not been extended to any new senior executive”.
Since it’s still relatively early in the year, we expect to see more golden coffin proposals. But just like the three we’ve seen so far, we’re pretty sure each of the companies will describe them as something a lot more gentle-sounding than a golden coffin.
UPDATE 1/28: According to Amalgamated press release, the proposal at Shaw passed by 2/3. Of course, given the current rules, majority voting means nothing. At least it doesn’t require the board to do anything. Still, it’s an interesting outcome.
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January 26th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Media is a Golden Dodo.
Cond? Nast tries to get it right on the Web
12:22p ET January 26, 2009 (MarketWatch)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Cond? Nast said Monday that it’s consolidating the respected publishing company’s digital properties into a single unit called Cond? Nast Digital. Sarah Chubb, former president of Cond? Nast’s Cond?Net operation, will take charge.
To a cynic, the reorganization might resemble shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic because the magazine publishing industry is so downtrodden. Such established titles as Time and Newsweek have had significant cutbacks. Cond? Nast’s Portfolio, a much hyped business magazine recently all but gutted its Internet operation and reduced the frequency of its monthly publication schedule.
In announcing the restructuring, Cond? Nast declared in a written statement that the new entity “creates a more efficient way for the company to leverage its digital business and combine that with the unique vertical opportunities it brings to advertisers.”
Cond? Nast is hailed for high standards of quality as it reaches a varied audience. Its magazine assets range from the New Yorker and Wired to Glamour and Vogue. The common thread is that each of the Cond? Nast magazines is geared to an audience that is upscale — if not outright elite. Its consumer advertisers reek of style and class, too.
Still, Cond? Nast finds itself in the same leaky boat as the rest of the industry. Say this for Cond? Nast, at least: It is trying hard not to drown.
– Jon Friedman