{"id":20522,"date":"2014-10-13T18:19:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T16:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=20522"},"modified":"2014-10-13T18:25:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T16:25:41","slug":"20522","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/20522\/","title":{"rendered":"Shareholder Activism in US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shareholder Activisim\u00a0 Darden Restaurants,\u00a0 owner of the Olive Garden, lost a more than nine-month battle against Starboard Value LP, which persuaded investors to replace the company\u2019s entire board at its shareholder meeting today.<\/p>\n

Investors voted for the 12 directors at Darden\u2019s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, where the company is based.Starboard\u2019s victory followed a carefully orchestrated campaign against Darden that included an almost 300-page list of recommendations for improving the business. Starboard criticized the company for selling off the Red Lobster chain and lobbied instead for Darden to separate its real-estate assets. The investment firm also knocked Olive Garden for giving out too many breadsticks to customers and not selling enough wine.<\/p>\n

Starboard has been pushing for changes at Darden since December. Barington Capital Group LP, another activist shareholder, had also lobbied Darden to consider other options to boost value.<\/p>\n

Starboard announced the board slate in May, saying Darden\u2019s management had shown \u201ccontempt for shareholder interests.\u201d The directors voted in today include the former CEO of Office Depot Inc.;the CEO of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc.; and\u00a0 the chairman and CEO of Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s result is \u201cextraordinary\u201d because shareholders typically shy away from replacing an entire board over concerns about continuity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the Red Lobster sale they seem to have lost touch with their investors,\u201d Elson said in an interview. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t get to this point. Obviously the dissatisfaction level was so significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Red<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shareholder Activisim\u00a0 Darden Restaurants,\u00a0 owner of the Olive Garden, lost a more than nine-month battle against Starboard Value LP, which persuaded investors to replace the company\u2019s entire board at its shareholder meeting today. Investors voted for the 12 directors at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","category-news-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t