It’s extraordinarily clear that shareholders are angry! They’re angry about lots of things, from opaque or otherwise bad financial reporting to outrageous CEO compensation, poison pills, staggered boards, and anything else that emanates from the thought that boards of directors are not doing their jobs. The underlying cause, some say, is a still too-cozy relationship between the board and CEO, and directors uncaring of legitimate shareholder needs.
Shareholders’ concerns move from simmering to boiling over only when their companies start losing tens of billions of dollars in sub-prime paper or product liability litigation, which are signs to these shareholders that ...