Bob Lamm, co-chair of Gunster's securities and corporate governance law practice, outlines the reforms and changes sought by empowered shareholders and why Florida business owners and executives need to prepare now before it happens to your company.

Watch the video now (or watch it on YouTube):

Video produced by TheLaw.TV

Shareholder empowerment can change your company – are you prepared?

We live in a time of unprecedented shareholder empowerment.

I’m not talking about activist investors, who have been around in one form or another for many years.

Rather, I’m talking about long-term institutional shareholders who want to effect change in the companies in which they invest.

These empowered shareholders often focus first on governance reforms, such as majority voting for directors, eliminating staggered boards, and giving shareholders greater rights to call special meetings.

Over time, some have gone for more fundamental changes in operations, second-guessing managements and boards.

These empowered shareholders’ early targets were generally large cap companies, but they’ve now begun to focus on mid- and smaller-cap companies, like many of those in Florida.

And of course, it’s much less expensive to acquire a position of influence in a mid- or small-cap company.

So Florida’s mid- and small-cap companies need to be on the lookout for empowered investors and to implement strategies to deal with them before they find empowered shareholders on the other side of the table.

Like the Boy Scouts say, “be prepared!”

Related Professionals

Jump to Page

Gunster Cookie Preference Center

Your Privacy

When you visit our website, we use cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. For more information about how we use Cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Always Active

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. These cookies may only be disabled by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functional Cookies

Always Active

Some functions of the site require remembering user choices, for example your cookie preference, or keyword search highlighting. These do not store any personal information.

Form Submissions

Always Active

When submitting your data, for example on a contact form or event registration, a cookie might be used to monitor the state of your submission across pages.

Performance Cookies

Performance cookies help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage. We access and process information from these cookies at an aggregate level.

Powered by Firmseek