Investors Revolt Online

To see the new face of shareholder activism, go to YouTube, MySpace or the blogosphere. That's where corporate consultant Eric Jackson, who owns 96 shares of Yahoo, launched a campaign last year to make the struggling Internet company more accountable to investors.

This year, he marshaled 135 investors holding about 2.2 million shares to persuade the company to accept Microsoft's (or some other bidder's) takeover offer. "We want a deal at the highest price, and we're ready to tender our shares," he says.

The Internet may increase activism among individual investors, says Patrick McGurn, a proxy expert at RiskMetrics Group. But online or not, shareholders big and small are putting corporate boards on the hot seat this annual-meeting season, expressing their views on everything from executive pay to the subprime-mortgage meltdown.

From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance

Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just ~~$107.88~~ $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues

CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/y99mlvgqmn1763972420.png

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

Some campaigns aim to unseat board members. The CtW Investment Group, which is affiliated with a coalition of labor unions, wants board members at six financial firms, including Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, to explain what they did to manage subprime-loan risks. Says CtW's Mike Garland: "Absent compelling explanations, we'll recommend that shareholders vote against reelection."

Other activists want to put specific proposals up for shareholder vote -- or at least get management to address the issues involved. "Say on pay" resolutions call for a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down on executive compensation. Other hot-button issues this year include political contributions and climate change.

Anne Kates Smith brings Wall Street to Main Street, with decades of experience covering investments and personal finance for real people trying to navigate fast-changing markets, preserve financial security or plan for the future. She oversees the magazine's investing coverage, authors Kiplinger’s biannual stock-market outlooks and writes the "Your Mind and Your Money" column, a take on behavioral finance and how investors can get out of their own way. Smith began her journalism career as a writer and columnist for USA Today. Prior to joining Kiplinger, she was a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and a contributing columnist for TheStreet. Smith is a graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Md., the third-oldest college in America.