Playing with poison can be a dangerous thing. So, it seems, can be playing with a company’s promises to shareholders.
News Corp. has suffered a winter of discontent with its shareholders, as the two sides argued in court about whether the company could renege on a 2004 promise not to adopt a poison pill. Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate made that pledge to win shareholder support for a plan to reincorporate the company from Australia to Delaware—and then last November, renewed its poison pill for another two years anyway.
