Shareholder rebellion occurs when the owners of a corporation work to throw out management or oppose their decisions. Shareholder rebellion may occur at an

annual general meeting An annual general meeting (AGM, also known as the annual meeting) is a meeting of the general membership of an organization. These organizations include membership associations and companies with shareholders. These meetings may be required ...

or through a

proxy battle A proxy fight, proxy contest or proxy battle is an unfriendly contest for control over an organization. The event usually occurs when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the corporate governance, often focusing on dir ...

. Shareholders may also threaten to collapse a firm's stock price through concentrated selling. In 1998, the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family ( ) is an American Industrial sector, industrial, political, and List of banking families, banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the History of the petroleum industry in th ...

led a shareholder revolt against

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

over its

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

policy. In 2005,

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner ( ; born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film ...

retired after

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

's nephew, Roy Disney, led a shareholder revolt, claiming Eisner was a

micromanager Micromanagement is a management style characterized by behaviors such as an excessive focus on observing and controlling subordinates and an obsession with details. Micromanagement generally has a negative connotation, suggesting a lack of fre ...

who had caused a creative brain drain. In 2010, BP and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

faced a shareholder revolt over their

Canadian tar sands This is a list of articles related to Canadian oil sands: * Athabasca oil sands * Black Bonanza * * Canadian Centre for Energy Information * Canadian oil sands (disambiguation) *Climate change in Canada * Cold Lake oil sands * Environmental impact ...

policy. Recently, shareholder rebellions have occurred over the issue of

executive compensation Executive compensation is composed of both the Salary, financial compensation (executive pay) and other non-financial benefits received by an Senior management, executive from their employing firm in return for their service. It is typically a mix ...

at Cable and Wireless and Shell; Shell in response unveiled a plan to curb executive compensation and bonuses. According to some analysts, institutional shareholders have been lax about holding management accountable because they were concentrating on picking correct stocks rather than protecting their interests in the stocks they owned. Shareholder revolts are becoming more common, with a record number of advisory “Say on Pay” votes in the US failing to win majority support in 2018.

History

On 24 January 1609, Amsterdam-based businessman

Isaac Le Maire Isaac Le Maire (c. 1558 in Antwerp – September 20, 1624 in Egmond aan den Hoef) was a Dutch entrepreneur, investor, and a sizeable shareholder of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He is best known for his constant strife with the VOC, ...

filed a petition against the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(VOC), marking the first recorded expression of

shareholder activism Shareholder activism is a form of activism in which shareholders use equity stakes in a corporation to put pressure on its management. A fairly small stake (less than 10% of outstanding shares) may be enough to launch a successful campaign. In co ...

or shareholder rebellion.Hansmann, Henry; Pargendler, Mariana (2013). ''The Evolution of Shareholder Voting Rights: Separation of Ownership and Consumption''. (Yale Law Journal, Vol. 123, pp. 100–165, 2014)

References

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Rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

History

See also

References