Rupert Murdoch got his slate of Directors through which is not surprising, although those shareholders that voted a protest need to be commended for their, losing, votes, as the cause is just.
The main unknown was what position John Malone, with his 23% of voting stock was going to be. Not really surprisingly, he voted in favour of the Murdoch slate and it was let known that the conversations leading to a settlement between the two were proceding. The question is what has already been offered to John Malone, to secure his votes and what will be offered to John Malone to reach agreement, all so that Rupert Murdoch can get what he wants.
No doubt, the inside shareholders, which include the Murdoch family, John Malone and the Saudi Walid bin Talal of Saudia Arabia will be taken care of, directly or indirectly. We should be hearing some time about Malone going off with some juicy NewsCorp assets and Walid bin Talal will probably announce some sort of juicy joint venture with NewsCorp.
The danger for the rest of NewsCorp shareholders is great.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Was a contentious shareholder vote at the annual meeting of the News Corporation yesterday a rebuke of Rupert Murdoch's conduct or a show of support? It all depends how the numbers are parsed.
Several shareholder groups - including investors who are suing the company over its decision to extend a poison pill takeover defense - had campaigned against the re-election of four directors, including the president, Peter Chernin, and the chief executive of DirecTV, Chase Carey.
The four were handily re-elected, and Mr. Murdoch, the chairman, declared that about 84 percent of votes endorsed the directors. "We consider this a strong endorsement of the company and its leadership," Gary Ginsberg, a company spokesman, said.
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