Which of the following statements is false?
A) Recently, shareholders have started organizing “no” votes. That is, when they are
dissatisfied with a board, they simply refuse to vote to approve the slate of nominees for
the board.
B) One early study of proxy contests found that the announcement of a contest
increased firm stock price by 8% on average, even if the challenge was eventually
unsuccessful and the incumbents won reelection.
C) Shareholders’ only real role in governance is in electing the directors of the
company.
D) Perhaps the most extreme form of direct action that disgruntled shareholders can
take is to hold a proxy contest and introduce a rival slate of directors for election to the
board.
Use the information for the question(s) below.
JR Industries has a $20 million loan due at the end of the year and under its current
business strategy its assets will have a market value of only $15 million when the loan
comes due. JR is considering a new much riskier business strategy. While this new
riskier strategy can be implemented using JR’s existing assets without any additional
investment, the new strategy has only a 40% probability of succeeding. If the new
strategy is a success, the market value of JR’s assets will be $30, but if the strategy fails
the assets will be worth only $5 million.