Saturday, 22 October 2011

News Corp AGM

So, after all the fighting, the News Corp directors were re-elected as expected. But what we still don't know is exactly what the results of the meeting were. According to an official statement bunged out on Friday PM, the results won't be made available until Monday.

Obviously the company knows the result, and will have known it for a few days. Delaying the release of the actual results suggests that we might have had some high votes against some directors. As one journo I spoke to yesterday pointed out, it's an odd PR move as this creates another story on Monday. Could be very interesting.

Meanwhile attention will turn to the BSkyB AGM, which is rapidly approaching. I am now of the view that if non-News Corp shareholders re-elect the current chair they will have made a major mistake. I would just about argue that there is a fiduciary issue here. There is enough information in the public domain to raise big questions about his continued position on the board (see Julian Pike testimony to DCMS committee for latest twist). Voting to re-elect him as chair must in turn put the spotlight on whether investors have really done their homework.

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