So, James Murdoch has been re-elected with an approx 5% vote against,
according to reports (no RNS yet). As expected, institutional shareholders backed
off once again, despite the Ofcom report, DCMS committee report etc.
A
small factoid to consider - if the reported level of opposition is
right (with minimal abstentions, apparently), this means that he had a
much tougher ride in 2008
(6% oppose, approx 13% in total not in favour) than today. That was
because he moved from chief executive to chair in breach of the Corp Gov
Code. (Oddly opposition to his re-election as chair fell right back by
2010 to less than 2% when a News Corp bid for BskyB was looming).
So not being an independent chair was more important on appointment than when a bid was in the offing, and being re-elected was easier after being critcised by both Parliament and your industry's regulatory body.
Pick the bones out of that one, as they say.
UPDATE - AGM results here. Two other directors - DeVoe & Siskind - got higher votes against than James Murdoch. Neither criticised by Parliament and Ofcom as far as I am aware....
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