Latest Boneheaded Yahoo Move: Miscounted Proxy Votes**
Alas, it was just another ham-fisted screw-up.
Yahoo's proxy firm Broadridge miscounted the votes. As we noted yesterday, the new count doesn't change anything--except give Jerry and Roy Bostock less shareholder support than they thought.
*UPDATE: Yahoo says the fault was entirely Broadridge's (or the voters) and says Broadridge works for banks, brokers, and institutions, not Yahoo. Translation: Don't blame us. WSJ:
In a statement Monday, Yahoo said it accurately announced the certified results. The company "did not participate in the execution of the votes and was not a party to any errors which may have been made either by a voting institution or a proxy processing intermediary acting on behalf of banks, brokers and institutions," the statement read.
UPDATE 2: Here are the new numbers. Only 66% of shareholders voted to keep Jerry. Still a comfortable margin, but far from overwhelming. Icahn and his friends might actually have been able to get him fired!
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) was informed today by Corporate Election Services, the inspector of elections for the Yahoo! annual meeting of shareholders on August 1, 2008, that Corporate Election Services was notified this morning by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., an independent voting intermediary that processes proxies on behalf of banks, brokers and institutions, of errors made by Broadridge in reporting votes at the meeting. Specifically, as Broadridge publicly disclosed earlier today, when Broadridge reported voting results for “withholds”, a truncation error occurred in reporting share numbers that exceeded eight digits.
| The following table reflects the corrected Broadridge numbers: | ||||||||
| Director | Shares For | % For | Shares Withheld | % Withheld | ||||
| Roy J. Bostock | 632,023,657 | 60.4% | 414,071,927 | 39.6% | ||||
| Ronald W. Burkle | 649,373,291 | 62.1% | 396,722,293 | 37.9% | ||||
| Eric Hippeau | 948,862,579 | 90.7% | 97,233,005 | 9.3% | ||||
| Vyomesh Joshi | 971,594,650 | 92.9% | 74,500,934 | 7.1% | ||||
| Arthur H. Kern | 714,871,925 | 68.3% | 331,223,659 | 31.7% | ||||
| Robert A. Kotick | 967,044,818 | 92.4% | 79,050,766 | 7.6% | ||||
| Mary Agnes Wilderotter | 964,939,727 | 92.2% | 81,155,857 | 7.8% | ||||
| Gary L. Wilson | 756,006,576 | 72.3% | 290,089,008 | 27.7% | ||||
| Jerry Yang | 693,055,602 | 66.3% | 353,039,982 | 33.7% | ||||
| The following table shows the original voting results certified by the inspector of elections, as previously reported: | ||||||||
| Director | Shares For | % For | Shares Withheld | % Withheld | ||||
| Roy J. Bostock | 832,023,657 | 79.5% | 214,071,927 | 20.5% | ||||
| Ronald W. Burkle | 849,373,291 | 81.2% | 196,722,293 | 18.8% | ||||
| Eric Hippeau | 948,862,579 | 90.7% | 97,233,005 | 9.3% | ||||
| Vyomesh Joshi | 971,594,650 | 92.9% | 74,500,934 | 7.1% | ||||
| Arthur H. Kern | 814,871,925 | 77.9% | 231,223,659 | 22.1% | ||||
| Robert A. Kotick | 967,044,818 | 92.4% | 79,050,766 | 7.6% | ||||
| Mary Agnes Wilderotter | 964,939,727 | 92.2% | 81,155,857 | 7.8% | ||||
| Gary L. Wilson | 856,006,576 | 81.8% | 190,089,008 | 18.2% | ||||
| Jerry Yang | 893,055,602 | 85.4% | 153,039,982 | 14.6% | ||||
These errors did not affect the outcome of the election of directors. No errors were reported with respect to the other proposals presented at the annual meeting
Original Broadridge statement (courtesy Kara Swisher, who broke the story):
On August 4, Broadridge was notified by an investor of a potential discrepancy in a reported vote at the Yahoo Annual Meeting on August 1.
Upon review, it was determined that there was a truncation error in the final printout sent to the tabulator. This resulted in the under-reporting of shares withheld for certain directors.
This error did not change the outcome of the election of directors, and was determined to be an isolated incident.
Broadridge has determined that the situation was unique – a truncation error occurred when shares withheld for a specific director in a specific nominee exceeded 8 digits and were reported to the tabulator in paper format. Broadridge has fixed the problem. Further, Broadridge has verified that over the past 18 months there were no other meetings with reports that included this unique combination of factors. The review is ongoing for meetings occurring before then.
On August 4th Broadridge notified Yahoo’s Inspector of Elections and Tabulator of the problem, and a revised report was issued on August 5th.
See Also: Yahoo Vote Scandal: Wait, We Meant To Say, "Fire Jerry!"
Any stats on how often this sort of thing happens? When was the last proxy miscount of this magnitude?
Lemme guess....you're long YHOO ;)
Yang the bone head takes his own number to MSFT, how many more examples does Wall Street need to start to scream “fire this board and especially Jerr.” As a stockholder I want those Asians assets sold!!
As I'm writing this, the current stock price is at $19.83.
The Yahoo board has cost its shareholders $18,117,881,996 by not taking the Microsoft deal.
It's certainly a vote of frustration. I wouldn't go so far as to say disaster.
Bostock and Yang don't HAVE to do anything. And I suspect they'll just ignore. But it is certainly time for the board to come out and declare full confidence in management...or fire them.
In other words, Bostock and Yang received three-to-four *times* more withheld shares than has ever been seen in a shareholder meeting.
I don't know how many meetings Broadridge has tabulated but two things strike me about this:
(1) Dissent tends to be rare at shareholder meetings and
(2) The message being sent here is a huge and rare event. Bostock and Yang need to pay close attention to this one, and not just shrug it off.
When it seems the majority of employees openly think the board, ceo & rest of exec. mgt. are idiots something is wrong.
Amazing how much steam a yahoo can let off over a couple beers.
The vote of no confidence coupled with this mistake is that makes this a disaster. Yahoo can ill afford missteps right now for they are very very wounded. This makes them look even worse and makes their senior leadership look ineffectual and damaged.
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good job!
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