April 25, 2006 - On Wall Street, it's all about money. Even when it comes to noble sentiments like democracy and equality, stock price counts for lots more than principle does.

Consider, if you will, the differing ways the Street is treating the New York Times Co. and Google, both of which have high-voting stock for insiders and low-voting stock for regular old public shareholders.

Almost a third of the publicly traded shares voted at the Times Co.'s recent annual meeting withheld votes for directors to protest the company's stock structure, an almost unheard-of act of rebellion. Meanwhile, there's no significant uproar over the way that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin control almost 60 percent of its votes while owning barely 20 percent of its stock.

The Bricklayers & Trowel Trades International Pension Fund-not a huge Wall Street name-is asking Google shareholders to back a one-share, one-vote rule at next month's annual meeting but hasn't exactly been deluged with support. "We are not expecting to win," says union official Jake McIntyre.

The difference? Stock price. Times Co. stock has been setting new multiyear lows and is depressed even by the depressed standards of newspaper stocks. Google, by contrast, is up about 30 percent in the past month and more than 400 percent from its initial public offering price less than two years ago. As of Monday, its stock market value, more than $130 billion, was triple the total of the 12 stocks that make up the Russell 3000 newspaper index.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which is leading the rebellion against Times Co.'s management, has been open about telling people that it wouldn't be agitating for change if Times stock had performed well. Alas, no one at Morgan Stanley, which has taken the unusual step for a white-shoe firm of filing documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that it wants the company to change to one-share, one-vote, agreed to be

CONTINUED

Print this

Email this