DealLawyers.com Blog

October 14, 2009

The Skinny on Split Voting

Helping you to gear up for a difficult proxy season, I have decided to start a weekly proxy solicitor podcast series. Each week, a new podcast with cover a hot topic that you may well face soon – with practical guidance from a proxy solicitor to help you navigate troubled waters. Here is our first installment in the series:

In this podcast, Scott Winter of Innisfree provides some insight into how to handle split voting (i.e., voting for nominees from opposing proxy cards in a contest) and its intersection with the 14a-4 bona fide nominee rule, including:

– What is split voting?
– How often do we see split voting?
– How do shareholders actually split their votes?
– Are there any ways we could make changes to the system which would make split voting easier?

Please take a moment to participate in our “Quick Survey on Impact of Loss of Broker Nonvotes for ’10 Proxy Season.”