Agilent Technologies | Right of Shareholders to Call Special Meetings at Agilent Technologies

Status
78.84% votes in favour
AGM date
Proposal number
4
Resolution details
Company ticker
A
Lead filer
CorpGov.net
Resolution ask
Adopt or amend a policy
ESG theme
  • Governance
ESG sub-theme
  • Shareholder rights
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Technology
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
The shareholders of Agilent Technologies Inc. (Company) hereby request the Board of Directors take the steps necessary to amend our bylaws and each appropriate governing document to give holders with an aggregate of 10% net long of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareowner meeting. This proposal does not impact our Board’s current power to call a special meeting.
Supporting statement
A meaningful shareholder right to call a special meeting is a way to bring an important matter to the attention of both management and shareholders outside the annual meeting cycle. This is important because there could be 15-months between annual meetings. Currently, 68% of S&P 500 companies allow shareholders to call a special meeting. Well over half of S&P 1500 companies also allow shareholders this right. According to Proxy Insight’s Resolution Tracker, a majority of shareholders at Dollar General, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kellogg, FleetCor Technologies, SPAR Group, Verizon, Sonoco Products and Electronic Arts recently voted to for their right to call special meetings. Large funds such as Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, BlackRock and SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (State Street) support the right of shareholders to call special meetings. For example, BlackRock includes the following in its proxy voting guidelines: [S]hareholders should have the right to call a special meeting... We urge the Board to join the mainstream of major U.S. companies and establish a right for shareholders owning 10% of our outstanding common stock to call a special meeting

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