Shareholders Send Live Nation Board A Warning
(UPDATED) A recent SEC filing by Live Nation reveals that not all of their shareholders are happy with the current board of directors. The filing, a form 8-K reported the results of the company's annual meeting on Friday, June 8th, during which shareholders voted on four directors to remain on the company's board; James L. Dolan, Ariel Emanuel, Gregory B. Maffei and Randall T. Mays.
Dolan, who is also CEO of Cablevision, a division of John Malone's Liberty Media which is a substantial holder of Live Nation stock fared the worst. Dolan saw almost a 26% no vote on his continued participation. Not nearly enough to see him oustered from the board, but a sizeable margin in light of the fact that board members own a significant portion of the company's stock.
The other directors, Endeavor's Ariel Emanuel, Clear Channel scion Randall Mays and Liberty Media president Gregory Maffei also racked up a sizeable amount of no votes, ranging from 14% to 24% percent.
The accounting firm, Ernst & Young, whom Live Nation appointed as their auditors, managed to garner the most support, with 167,885,756 share voting for and only 62,506 against
An even louder dissent was heard on approval of the company's executive compensation package. As with many corporations, Live Nation allows its shareholders to participate in a vote on executive compensation. While the vote is merely advisory, (read non-binding) it only passed with slightly more than 58% of voting shares.
While the company's filing did not provide breakdowns, this could imply dissatisfaction among one or more of one of the company's institutional holders such as Blackrock and Shapiro Capital Management, or it could imply a substantial lack of support among independent shareholders, who own about 40% of Live Nation's outstanding stock.
And it isn't hard to see why shareholders might be dismayed about the company's executive compensation. In the past year, the company's stock has lost more than 20% of its value, closing at $8.78 and has seen a lot of red ink since merging with Ticketmaster, to the tune of $600 million in losses.
At the same time, Live Nation's management team has enjoyed substantial compensation, totaling $36 million in 2011, with most board members receiving about $200,000 in cash and stock, though this figure is slightly lower than the previous year. – via CelebrityAccess
