Why The Proxy Battle To Dismantle Yahoo's Board Probably Won't Work

Two massive pension funds are getting together to wage a proxy battle that would completely wipe out and rebuild Yahoo's Board of Directors at the company's meeting tomorrow, but it's time to get real — they probably won't get what they want. At least not exactly. Proxy battles became en vogue in 2012 as hedge fund managers, pension funds, and other big-time shareholders started demanding more from the boards of the companies in which they invested. The trend has continued into 2013, and it's true that the dissidents in these fights have been gaining more ground as time goes on. Still, proxy battles are really hard to win outright— especially at big firms with popular CEOs (see...