The Ochs-Sulzberger-
"Hey, you know how to wind up owning $1 million worth of NYT stock? Start out with $2 million."
Last year Hassan Elmasry, an investment manager for Morgan Stanley, withheld votes for several directors at the Times' annual meeting in protest of the company's dual-class share structure, which allows the Sulzberger family to maintain control of the company through a special class of shares with powerful voting rights.
I guess that's what John Edwards means when he talks about there being two Americas.
Criticizing the poor performance of the company's shares, Elmasry said at the time that the dual-class structure fostered a 'lack of accountability' to the company's public shareholders.
"For gosh sakes, these people think Maureen Dowd should be a regular columnist. The woman's completely starkers."
The company says the structure is necessary to preserve the editorial integrity of The New York Times.
If "Editorial integrity" means Pinch's key to the executive washroom.
Elmasry also tried to get a shareholder proposal on the company's proxy statement for this year that would have recommended putting the dual-class share structure to a shareholder vote.
Obviously another neo-con bent on democratizing institutions that genetically cannot handle democracy.
But the company, with the blessing of the Securities and Exchange Commission
So that's why Luca Brasi was in Washington.
declined to allow the proposal, noting that the only way to change the share structure is by a vote of the Sulzberger family members, and they have indicated they don't plan to do so.
"Changing our share structure would contribute to global warming."
Fortune magazine reported the news earlier Friday of the Sulzbergers move, saying the value of the Sulzbergers' assets was close to $640 million.
Camel. Eye of a needle. You know the drill.