Micheal Dell, founder and current chief executive of Dell, could use a hug right about now. Why? It was revealed during a regulatory filing on Tuesday that a fourth of investors — or about 378 million out of 1.5 billion — voted against Mr. Dell staying on his company’s board, The New York Times reports.
“Mr. Dell is quite an iconic figure at the company,” said Joseph A. Grundfest, a Standford law professor and co-director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance. “It is extremely rare to have that amount of shareholder disaffection directed toward an executive who is so central to the company’s past, present, and future.”
Dell shareholders are apparently fed up with the company’s recent woes, including the payment of $100 million to settle charges of accounting fraud brought forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the SEC, Dell misled its investors by not disclosing how important regular payments from Intel had been to the company’s bottom line.
Naturally, a Dell spokesman put a positive spin on the vote, saying, “Our board of directors has previously reaffirmed its confidence in Mr. Dell’s leadership and a majority of shareholders agreed.”
Image Credit: businessinsider.com
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