Disney
to amend voting bylaws for election of directors
Indiantelevision.com Team
(30 December 2006 6: 00 pm)
MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Disney has agreed that it will amend its bylaws
to provide for a majority vote standard for the election of directors in uncontested
elections.
The
bylaw will provide that in uncontested elections director nominees must be elected
by the majority of votes cast at the annual meeting of shareholders. Incumbent
directors who fail to receive a majority of votes -- and who would otherwise remain
in office until a successor is elected under Delaware law -- would be required
to offer a letter of resignation for consideration by the Board which shall be
required to act promptly. Plurality voting will continue to apply if the number
of nominees exceeds the number of open director positions. The Company will adopt
the bylaw in time to apply to the Company's 2008 annual meeting,
In
2005, the company was among the first to adopt a policy calling for directors
who receive more "withhold" than "for" votes in an uncontested
election to submit their resignation. That policy was adopted in the Company's
Corporate Governance Guidelines. This year, the Company received a shareholder
proposal from the Sheet Metal Workers National Pension Fund requesting that the
Board initiate a process to amend the bylaws to require majority voting. The Board
determined that the step was an appropriate one and agreed to amend the bylaws.
In pursuit
of its commitment to corporate governance, the Disney Board has taken several
actions in the last several years. These include the adoption of an "anti-greenmail"
provision; updating its executive compensation plans to stress pay for performance;
setting annual terms for all Board members; eliminating the "poison pill;"
requiring directors to each own a minimum of $100,000 in Disney stock; establishing
regular executive sessions of non-management directors; limiting the number of
other public company boards on which a director may serve; and both reducing the
size of the board from 16 members in 2002 to 13 and increasing the number of independent
directors.