Month: October 2005

Sun Shareholders Proposal Passes

The headline in the business section of the San Jose Mercury News Friday was "Shareholders Rebuke Sun".  At Sun’s annual meeting shareholders passed  a proposal to get rid of Sun’s  poison pill. The poison pill is designed to make hostile takeovers difficult. I think it is pretty unusual for a shareholders proposal to pass but given how long Sun has been underperfoming it is not surprising. 

The proposal was submitted by a William Steiner.  I am curious to know who he is. A Google search didn’t turn up much other that that he files shareholder proposals quite frequently. Edgar Online shows 356 filings by him over more than 10 years.

Even though the shareholder proposal passed it is not binding so it will be interesting to see if Sun pays attention to what its Shareholders think. I also wonder whether the poison pill  is stopping any potential buyers.

I used to work at Sun and I still own Sun stock. I would have to agree with the other shareholders that a takeover might be the best possible thing for Sun given that current management doesn’t seem to be able to deliver.

Catfish and Mandala

I just finished reading Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham.It is a fascinating, moving, enthralling read. The book was thought provoking on lots of different levels. Pham and his family arrived in the US from Vietnam in 1977 when he was 10. Catfish and Mandala is the story of his family and of his life both in Vietnam and as an American immigrant.  It is also the story of his return to Vietnam and of his journey by bicycle through Vietnam. Although  the book is about his travels it is much more an exploration of Pham’s Vietnamese American  experience. It is really hard to describe this book because it delves into so much. But I couldn’t help feeling a connection to Pham  even though so much  of what he experienced is so alien to anything I have every experienced. Pham is an extraordinarily talented writer. I highly recommend the book.

I’m in Atlanta

I’m in Atlanta (actually Marietta) on business. The flight was smooth and on time, direct from Oakland to Atlanta. This is my first visit to Georgia outside of the Atlanta airport. I’m going to be pretty busy with meetings so I don’t imagine I’ll get to see much but it is still nice to be some place new. I ordered sweet tea with dinner, something I only do when I am in the south.

Telescopes

Last night Duke and I went with friends to the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.  I enjoyed the exhibits but the planetarium and the telescopes were the highlights of the evening.  I didn’t know this but their telescopes are open to the public free of charge every Friday and Saturday night. It was so cool to go out into the night air in the dim red light and look at Venus through the refractor telescope. We looked out the window and saw Venus in the west and then looked through the telescope and saw that Venus looked just like a half moon. It was also really cool to realize that the telescope
is the original 1883 instrument donated by Anthony Chabot who founded
the center. We also looked through the  telescope which is the largest refractor in the western United open for public viewing and saw the globular cluster M15. It gave me shivers.

The planetarium at Chabot was just reopened recently. It has the latest and greatest in the way of planetarium equipment. The man who gave presentation had just the right amount of fascination and awe about the universe mixed with a scientific skepticism and telling of the facts.  The planetarium night sky was wonderful. At one point he raised the lights a bit to show us how the lights of the bay area wash out the stars. I think that was part of what made the bay area night sky of the planetarium so awe inspiring, It was just like we were up in the back country of the Sierras able to see the millions of stars that take your breath away.

When we left the planetarium we went for dinner to the Downtown Restaurant in Berkeley. Last time we went there the dinner was great and this time I thought it was even better.