This morning, Netflix announced that it has adopted a poison pill shareholder rights plan as a defense against unfriendly attempts to take control of the company. The plan kicks in when an unwanted suitor's ownership position hits 10%. As it happens, investor Carl Icahn last week revealed that he has acquired just shy of 10% of the company's shares.
Here's Icahn's response to the Netflix poison pill:
“This morning [Netflix] announced its adoption of a poison pill. [We] believe any poison pill without a shareholder vote is an example of poor corporate governance, and find the pill Netflix just adopted is particularly troubling due to its remarkably low and discriminatory 10% threshold. We also note that Netflix is one of the few companies that continues to ignore the fact that the shareholders have strongly expressed their wishes through a majority vote to de-stagger its board. As one of the company’s largest shareholders we are concerned about the poor corporate governance at Netflix that these and other actions reflect.”
NFLX is down 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $76.75.
