Broadridge Financial Solutions Messes Up Yahoo! Board Vote Count, But Fixes It Immediately
Amit Chowdhry | Tuesday August 5, 2008 | 2,268 views| 24 Comments
Broadridge Financial Solutions was responsible for counting the votes at the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shareholder annual meeting. After Capital Research and Ironfire Capital’s Eric Jackson challenged Yahoo!’s counting process because they believed there should have been more opposition against Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock, the search engine company insisted that the votes were counted correctly.
However, Broadridge Financial Solutions stated that there was a truncation error that led to the under-reporting of the number of votes. But Broadridge stated that the error didn’t affect the outcome of the election where all of Yahoo!’s directors were re-elected.
Broadridge stated that this incident was isolated.
“The independent inspector of elections certified the results of the election and Yahoo accurately announced those results,” read a statement released by Yahoo! “[Yahoo!] 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.”
Below are the corrected voter recounts provided by Broadridge:
| 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% | ||||
Below is the original vote tallies:
| 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% |
Will this affect the outcome? Highly unlikely. Will shareholders be upset that Roy Bostock and Jerry Yang did not receive a higher percentage vote for staying on the board? Pretty likely.
Related Link:
1. Silicon Alley Insider
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- Fate Of Yahoo! Board Set For August 1
- Microsoft Still Interested In Buying Yahoo! If A New Board Is Elected
- Yahoo! Turns Down New Microsoft Deal (Search Acquisition, New Board)
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