NY Fund Throws Support To Computer Associates Board

The fund’s sole trustee, State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, said the $112 billion asset fund would vote its 1.487 million shares for the current board of the world’s No. 4 software company.

McCall said the New York fund would support the current board because of the more than 70% year-to-date increase in the stock price and the importance of the company and its 18,000 employees to New York’s Long Island, where Computer Associates is headquartered.

Board Battle

In June, Texas billionaire Sam Wyly and the group he formed, Ranger Governance, launched a bid to take over the board, putting up a full slate of 10 nominees. He later changed tactics when influential shareholder advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Proxy Monitor, expressed their support for the current board ? but said they would have supported a less extreme attempt to influence the board.

Wyly took himself out of consideration and scaled back his proposed 10 candidates to four. The proxy advisory firms subsequently reversed course and lent their support to the dissident board members supported by Wyly.

Also joining the support of the Wyly board candidates was the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which cast its support and 3.12 million shares last week.

Shareholders are scheduled to vote at the company’s annual meeting Aug. 29.