Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies issued an “open letter” to Barnes & Noble employees–who must vote their 401(k) shares by the end of the day today–along with a press release criticizing the bookseller for not allow them to communicate directly with workers. A spokesperson says in the release, “Barnes & Noble used company resources and the company’s internal communications systems on multiple occasions to solicit votes for Leonard Riggio and his hand-picked nominees to the Board of Directors. But when Yucaipa requested an opportunity to respond, we were blocked from distributing a letter filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […]
Finance
Barnes & Noble Stock Surges
The stock market in general rose this afternoon after the Federal Reserve said it was “prepared” to act further to support recovery, but Barnes & Noble’s stock outperformed other gainers with a 9.25 percent rise on the day with the contentious annual meeting less than a week away. (By comparison, the Dow Jones Average rose over 7 percent, but the broader S&P 500 actually declined almost 3 percent on the day.) Borders stock also rode the updraft, gaining almost 14.5 percent for the day on unusually high volume of 3 million shares (though at just over a dollar a share, […]
Your Proxy Fight Daily Report
Today Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio added to shareholders’ mailboxes by apologizing for all the mail–and blaming Ron Burkle. “For the past six weeks your mailboxes have been full of letters urging you to vote your shares in favor of the company, or in favor of Mr. Burkle of Yucaipa. They are referred to as ‘fight letters,’ and they often live up to the promise. For myself and the good people of Barnes & Noble it is a fight we did not ask for, and do not deserve.” The company also points to their endorsement by another small proxy […]
Biggest Proxy Firm Supports Burkle Nominees to Barnes & Noble Board
Perhaps the most-watched proxy advisory Institutional Shareholder Services broke ranks this morning with two other firms in supporting Ron Burkle’s slate of alternate directors for Barnes & Noble. The NYT says the move “could be crucial” since “many large institutional investors are required to vote their shares along the lines of ISS’s recommendations.” In their summary, ISS says “based on BKS’ deteriorating operating performance, poor shareholder return, less-than-enthusiastic analyst recommendations, inadequate transparency into and disclosure on a very large related-party transaction which appears to have exacerbated performance problems [i.e. the purchase of Barnes & Noble College], and significant concerns about […]
People, Etc.: Rumseld’s Book Is KNOWN, Wiley Repurchases, and More
Stephanie Gorton has joined The Overlook Press as editor. She was previously managing editor at Canongate UK. Tom Willshire has joined Overlook as national accounts manager. He was previously at Continuum. At St. Martin’s, Monique Patterson has been promoted to executive editor. At HarperCollins, May Chen has been promoted to senior editor. Also at the company, John Jusino has been promoted to director of production editorial for the Harper, Harper Business, and Collins Reference imprints. Joan Slattery is joining Pippin Properties as an agent and contracts manager. She has been at Random House for 20 years, most recently as senior […]
More Proxy Support for Barnes & Noble
Proxy advisory firm Egan-Jones has recommended general support of management in the Barnes & Noble battle. They say “we have not seen a convincing strategy put forward by Yucaipa which would…put the company on a materially different pathleading to increased shareholder value.” And they are concerned about the angle raised by BN itself–that Yucaipa and Aletheia will be able to take control jointly if the poison pill is amended. (These proxy firms don’t seem imagine enough to entertain the prospect that the best way to fetch a good buyout price for BN shares is to pique chairman Len Riggio’s competiveness […]