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.
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