TheCorporateCounsel.net

Here’s something I recently posted on the DealLawyers.com Blog:

In our recent podcast, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Steve Haas discussed bylaw changes that companies should consider in response to the implementation of the universal proxy rules.  One possible change he suggested was including language in the bylaws reserving the use of the white proxy card to the board.

White is the color that’s traditionally been used by management in proxy contests, and with all parties jockeying for leverage in the new environment, it certainly seemed plausible that dissidents might try to grab the white card to increase the likelihood that investors would return their version of the universal proxy card.  Over the past couple of months, many companies, including heavyweights like Exxon Mobil and Alphabet, have staked their claim via a bylaw amendment. Here’s the relevant language from Alphabet’s bylaws:

2.12 PROXIES.

Each stockholder entitled to vote at a meeting of stockholders may authorize another person or persons to act for such stockholder by proxy, but no such proxy shall be voted or acted upon after three (3) years from its date, unless the proxy provides for a longer period. A stockholder may authorize another person or persons to act for him, her or it as proxy in the manner(s) provided under Section 212(c) of the DGCL or as otherwise provided under Delaware law. The revocability of a proxy that states on its face that it is irrevocable shall be governed by the provisions of Section 212 of the DGCL.

Any stockholder directly or indirectly soliciting proxies from other stockholders must use a proxy card color other than white, which shall be reserved for the exclusive use by the Board.

Anyway, it turns out that the concerns about dissidents beating companies to the punch and claiming the white card for their own that have prompted these amendments aren’t just hypothetical.  On Twitter, Andrew Droste pointed out that activist hedge fund Blackwells Capital has launched a proxy contest at Global Net Lease – and grabbed the white card before the company did. So, if any of you have clients that considering the possibility of this kind of amendment, you might want to share Andrew’s tweet with them & suggest that there’s no time like the present.

Gibson Dunn’s Ron Mueller points out that Engine No. 1 snagged the white card in its battle with Exxon Mobil, and that’s what first put this issue on the radar screen for public companies (and likely prompted Exxon Mobil’s bylaw amendment).

– John Jenkins