New services, such as voting Moxy and upcoming changes in regulations, may increase the level of participation of individual investors at the shareholders’ voting.
It ‘hard to imagine that Google (GOOG) Meeting of resistance to the proposed acquisition, but what happened at the end of 2009. Even more surprising was the beginning of the Web site that launched just a month before giving the floor to the minority shareholders of the target company, which makes it easier for them to vote by proxy to counter the operation.
Through a campaign of shareholder activist, On2 Technologies (ONT), a provider of video compression software and related services, has yet to obtain approval of the merger by shareholders representing more than 50% of its outstanding shares. Angry to accept the direction of what is regarded as an offer undervalued by Google last August, a group of investors On2 went to work on bulletin boards and other private shareholders led MoxyVote.com a new website committed to educate and empower retail investors by simplifying the complex process of proxy voting and allow them to vote online.
Jean Marcoux, an engineer who has about 1 million shares of On2, Vote Moxy learned very late in its online efforts to collect a group of shareholders to push for better assessment of the securities of On2. Less than two weeks before a special meeting of shareholders on 18 December to approve the merger, shareholders and other activists gathered Marcoux several hundred votes, or about 22 million shares, or approximately 12.3% of On2 exposure total 178.2 million shares, to express their vote on voting Moxy.
“It ‘was really impressive,” he said. Although it has not seen the final count of votes Moxy, knows that the vote “was very, very, very strong against [the merger]. Most people who went to vote, to be contacted by [people] have opposed the merger.
Revised Offer
After failing once again in a meeting 23 December to obtain the necessary number of votes, the vote On2 rescheduled for February 17, 2010. Meanwhile, on January 7, Google raised its bid, adding 15 cents per share in cash for its bid until all the parties of $ 106 million, or 0.001 shares of Google for each share of On2, its value increased by over 133 million dollars. On2 also slow down the record date for shareholders entitled to vote on January 15.
Moxy Vote Marcoux following more credit for an increased offer from Google, but he believes that the site is part of a joint effort by dissident investors (including articles in publications like the Financial Times) that the response revised offer.
While Marcoux and other shareholders feel Google is still undervalued stocks On2 no longer try to get shareholders to vote on the budget for Moxy due to some behind-the-scenes developments refused to discuss. “I am grateful that Moxy’s vote is a platform [] that allow us to meet and speak with our voice and its role has attracted the attention of Google that this agreement would not have happened if we were doing something.”
Distribution values has always been a heterogeneous group, Corral and difficult to activate, and the vote of fusion On2 is the first example together to form a bloc of voters online, “said Doug Gates, vice president of marketing for Moxy’s vote. Unlike most start-up experience, which can take months and months wondering if someone will use your service, “it is a validation that could well be any one what he said.
Lawyers shareholders Guide
Other sites like www.ShareOwners.org www.ProxyDemocracy.org and also engage in education of individual investors, but the vote is the only truly Moxy allows people to vote online, and action. The company does not generate revenue and business model is still under investigation.
So far, 21 organizations have signed up as supporters to vote Moxy, philanthropic organizations, like the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and religious affiliated groups of investors and Brothers Investment Services. Being a lawyer does not mean that they can express their views on a proposed policy, but is a guide for shareholders who can automatically align their votes with a lawyer of his choice.
The average selling shareholder needs of both advice and assistance to overcome their apathy to vote on actions taken, “said Kevin Gates, brother of Doug and fund manager at TFS Capital in West Chester, Pennsylvania ’s majority investor in MoxyVote.com. While Gates said he is interested in shareholder resolutions recognized that also tends to eliminate the majority of proxy votes that come in the mail for his portfolio. Compare the summaries of votes on the proposal Moxy CliffsNotes that condense the information into a format and digestible format that is more likely to attract their attention.
Shareholders can use the control number in a proxy statement received by mail to vote on a ballot for every vote Moxy card or configure it for his direct intervention in the ballot automatically in the stocks that hold on the site. A user can find a company under the vote and to be directed to a page that shows the date of the next meeting of shareholders and the dates of online voting begins and ends. It also shows how owners and proposals on the ballot, and who are members of the board for re-election.
Default Rate
The main feature is to improve the ability to make their vote to a defect which automatically aligns the card with confidence. A shareholder who is a vegetarian and concerned about cruelty to animals, as the wife of Kevin Gates, for example, can set its vote for independence of the Humane Society suggests, or whether this group has not published a notice in a particular voting , on the recommendation of another defender of animal rights. “It ‘a long installation process” that can be run on autopilot, “said Kevin Gates.” People who do not care too much about corporate governance, even if you invest 30 minutes of your time could be a long term investment [value for them]. ”
Site is expected to add many supporters over the next six to 12 months to expand the menu of experts with knowledge of the individual shareholders are able to exploit. If there are no lawyers have an opinion on a proposal by a vote, users can set their default to abstain or vote with or against the direction of the company.
Users can also choose to cancel the previous vote, provided that the vote is open.
Nell Minow, editor and co-founder of the corporate library, an independent research group, estimates that by default the defender will tell you much more confidence for investors to vote for now.
“For the investor said:” I want to be smarter than these compensations offered to vote, “It ‘nice to have a resource to go where the votes Moxy you say is like the Sierra Club is a vote or what they say truckers” he said. “You can not go it alone in your due diligence.”
Proxy Access Rule
While shareholder activism tends to be regarded as progressive, Doug Gates says Vote Moxy trying to attract lawyers from across the political spectrum. “We want to be painted as too liberal or too liberal, because we only want to host the debate. But the reality is that most defenders are progressive and therefore more likely that conservatives on the site.”
Not only the Internet but a series of legislative changes in the promise of greater importance to individual members in matters of voting rights in companies, “said Minow. A neighbor proxy access rule, announced in June 2009 by the Commission Securities & Exchange Commission of the United States, would allow shareholders to nominate an alternate slate of directors primarily at the expense of the company, forcing businesses to put Alternate names of candidates on the proxy cards of the same company sent to all shareholders. So far, it has been too costly for shareholders to oppose militant commitment of the candidates of the Council, said Minow.
“This will allow shareholders to challenge directors of the companies significantly. When this happens, every vote is much, much more valuable, more complex and need a guide who try to give Rating Moxy,” he said. ‘This is to get corporate America in which they live. “So that the Chamber of Commerce has already said it will be cause to challenge the rule as soon as you leave, he said.
Eric Cohen, chairman of Boston-based investors against genocide, one of 21 defenders Vote Moxy, see the site as a necessary corrective to some of the factors that stack the deck against the proposals of shareholders. Among these factors is an SEC rule that requires clear and equitable resolution of the shareholders in a vote, unless the shares are “held in street name” through a broker.
Cohen said he was surprised to discover that, when Broadridge, the signing of intermediaries longer used to communicate with its shareholders, voting instructions sent funds to U.S. investors last year, not one word of the prayer group Cohen has developed to describe resolution calling for the funds do not invest in U.S. companies in the group seen as complicit in genocide.
Using mutual funds
Moxy Minow also vote that could be useful to force mutual funds to vote more in line with the interests of individual shareholders. “I want to see not only individual investors Moxy vote by vote, but seeing what they are voting and return of their investment funds and saying,” I wonder why I did not vote that way, “as the general approval of funds in the packages compensation for executives regardless of performance.
Moxy vote but no longer has a role in providing On2/Google, Marcoux said he and some like-minded countries intend to join to become a defender on the site. He sees a revolutionary platform innovation that has the potential to enable individual investors to pool their voices against the abuses of business leaders who ignore the interests of shareholders.
“It’s very difficult for shareholders to have a voice in this process, large companies,” he said. “Vote Moxy will be a place where people can meet and express their opinion.”
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