CBS and its special committee of independent directors have decided to sue the Redstone controlling shareholders.

Daisy Harvey

2018-05-09 08:31:00 Wed ET

CBS and its special committee of independent directors have decided to sue the Redstone controlling shareholders because these directors might have breached their fiduciary duties. This breach can cause irreparable harm since the Redstone controlling shareholders who own 79% of CBS equity stakes have indicated a clear intention to force a merger of CBS and Viacom. This prospective merger may not serve the best interests of CBS's minority shareholders who own the residual 21% equity stakes.

CBS's independent directors propose to issue a stock dividend of voting shares to all the minority shareholders. This issuance would dilute the voting power of the Redstone controlling shareholders from 79% to about 17% but would not dilute the economic ownership interests of any CBS shareholders. This special dividend is permissible under CBS's corporate charter for its controlling shareholders and directors to honor their fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and good faith.

Alternatively, the Redstone controlling shareholders might go nuclear by voting out the special committee of independent directors instantly by written consent with short shareholder notice. This coup attempt would allow the Redstone controlling shareholders to replace the board with their close friends who would then approve the CBS-Viacom merger plan. On balance, this complex and thorny issue shines fresh light on whether the current corporate governance regime should enhance independent directorship with greater voting power.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 1)

Laura Hermes

2022-02-05 09:26:00 Saturday ET

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 1)

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance   Shiller, R.J. (2003). From efficient markets theory to behavioral finance. Journal of Economi

+See More

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

Daphne Basel

2019-07-31 11:34:00 Wednesday ET

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

AYA Analytica finbuzz podcast channel on YouTube July 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of July 2019: (1) All 18 systemical

+See More

William Easterly critiques several economic development policies and then indicates that bottom-up solutions often result in macro policy success in spite of nation states.

John Fourier

2023-05-07 10:27:00 Sunday ET

William Easterly critiques several economic development policies and then indicates that bottom-up solutions often result in macro policy success in spite of nation states.

William Easterly critiques several economic development policies and then indicates that bottom-up solutions often result in macro policy success in spite o

+See More

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-American tariff tension.

Jacob Miramar

2019-10-01 11:33:00 Tuesday ET

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-American tariff tension.

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-Ame

+See More

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022.

Peter Prince

2022-02-02 10:33:00 Wednesday ET

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022.

Our proprietary alpha investment model outperforms most stock market indices from 2017 to 2022. As of early-January 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark O

+See More

Precautionary-motive and agency reasons for corporate cash management

Monica McNeil

2022-10-05 08:24:00 Wednesday ET

Precautionary-motive and agency reasons for corporate cash management

Precautionary-motive and agency reasons for corporate cash management Bates, Kahle, and Stulz (JF 2009) empirically find that public firms have doubled t

+See More