AT&T Shareholders Vote on Pension, Restructuring Proposals

May 23, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - AT&T announced the preliminary results of the 2001 proxy voting to stockholders at the group's annual meeting.

AT&T shareholders demonstrated strong support for a proposal to amend the company’s charter, making it easier to get the required votes for the restructuring it announced last October. The amendment would allow a simple majority of voting shareholders to approve a major structural change, rather than the two-thirds currently required.

The 96% majority vote for the proposal demonstrates support for changing the company’s charter in line with those of most US corporations.

In total, about 82% of the outstanding shares were voted in AT&T’s 2001 Proxy by 677 shareholders. The preliminary results on proposals pertaining to employee benefits, among others, were announced, specifically:

  • a proposal pertaining to the Employee Pension Plan was voted against by 2.5 billion shares or 85.3% of the vote. The proposal would have allowed AT&T employees to have a choice between a traditional defined benefit pension plan or a cash-balance plan, which AT&T converted to in 1997
  • the Employee Stock Purchase Plan proposal was approved with about 3.5 billion or 96% of shares voted in favor of the plan;
  • the Officer and Director Bonuses proposal was voted against by 2.6 billion shares, or 89.3%;
  • the Executive Compensation Study proposal was voted against by 2.5 billion shares or 84.2%.


 

«