SiliconBeat

A study of the nation’s largest institutional investors says that the “majority” of them do not support “say-on-pay” efforts to require shareholder votes on executive compensation, according to the Center on Executive Compensation, which says it is “dedicated to developing and promoting principled pay and governance practices and advocating compensation policies that serve the best interests of shareholders and other corporate stakeholders.”

In fact, “only a quarter of the institutions” queried were in favor of say-on-pay proposals.” The study also claims that large institutional investors are “not generally” concerned with Read the rest of this entry »

Shareholders of IXYS voted down the company’s proposed 2008 Equity Incentive Plan at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday, according to a filing the Milpitas chip maker made Monday. The company’s board of directors adopted the new plan in May and was seeking approval from shareholders for reserving Read the rest of this entry »

We were going to start this post, “If at first you don’t succeed…,” then realized the aphorism didn’t quite fit.

For the second year in a row, shareholders at Ultratech, the San Jose supplier of chip-making equipment, will vote on a proposal at its annual meeting next month to change how the company’s board of directors is elected. Currently, elections are staggered, with half of the board standing for election each year, also known as the classified system. The proposal asks to declassify the board by having all directors face election every year.

The problem is, Read the rest of this entry »

Rackable Systems, the Milpitas maker of energy-efficient servers used in data centers, said earlier this week that results from its shareholder meeting late last month show that it prevailed over dissident shareholder Richard Leza.

Leza was so incensed by the compensation doled out by the board over the last year — including stock-based pay for the company’s new chief executive valued at nearly $13million — that he invested a good deal of his own time and money to wage a proxy battle tohave himself and another outside candidate elected to Rackable’s board, and to pass a proposal he made to give shareholders an opportunity each year approve the top executive’s pay. Read the rest of this entry »