Big Bloc of Dell Investors Back Call to Oust Chairman

by James Parks, Aug 19, 2010

Richard Waters confirms that our call for shareholders to withhold their votes from Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc, had a big impact–just over 25 percent of shareholders withheld their support for his appointment, an extremely high percentage for such a vote. Here’s his report on FT.com, Financial Times’ online news site:

A substantial minority of the shareholders of Dell, the world’s third-biggest PC maker, have backed an investor protest aimed at pressuring the company’s board into stripping founder Michael Dell of the title of chairman.

 According to an official Dell filing late on Tuesday in the U.S., holders of 25.1 per cent of shares voted at the company’s annual meeting last week withheld their support for Mr Dell’s reappointment as a director. The protest vote was sizeable given the automatic reinstatement most U.S. directors receive.

The AFL-CIO and AFSCME  asked Dell shareholders to withhold their votes from Michael Dell at the annual shareholder meeting. The AFL-CIO and AFSCME, which both own Dell shares, said the company would be better served by removing Michael Dell as chairman.

We cited both the company’s settlement of fraud complaints by the Securities and Exhange Commission (SEC)  and the fact that Michael Dell received $453.8 million in total compensation including stock option exercises between 2000 and 2009–about $45,380,000 a year or $21,817 an hour for a 40-hour week with no overtime–while shareholders lost 66 percent of the value of their stock.

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