Lionsgate shareholder Carl Icahn, who has been waging a hostile takeover of the studio, has announced his alternative slate of board members, reports Deadline.com.
Lionsgate shareholder Carl Icahn, who has been waging a hostile takeover of the studio, has announced his alternative slate of board members, reports Deadline.com. Chris McGurk is the former president, COO and Vice Chairman of MGM and Overture Films CEO. Jay Firestone is the former vice chairman of Alliance Communications, founder of Fireworks Entertainment and head of Prodigy Pictures. Dr. Michael Dornemann is the former CEO of Bertelsmann Entertainment and a board member of Columbia Music. Daniel Ninivaggi is President of Icahn Enterprises. Dr. Harold Shapiro is former president of Princeton University and current professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton.
The current Lionsgate board includes Michael Burns, Harald Ludwig, G. Scott Paterson, Mark H. Rachesky, and Hardwick Simmons. Shareholders will vote for the board members at the shareholders meeting in Los Angeles on December 14.
Lionsgate issued the below response.
Press Release from Lionsgate
SANTA MONICA, Calif. and VANCOUVER, Nov. 26, 2010 — Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) today confirmed that it has received notice that Carl Icahn and certain of his affiliated entities (the “Icahn Group”) intend to nominate five individuals for election to Lionsgate’s Board of Directors at the Company’s 2010 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 10:00 am PT in Los Angeles, California.
The Company said: Led by the current Board and management team, Lionsgate has achieved record revenues, major box office success, one of the strongest and most valuable filmed entertainment libraries in the industry, a vibrant television business, a dynamic and growing portfolio of channel platforms and an attractive worldwide distribution infrastructure. Lionsgate’s momentum is evident throughout all of the Company’s business and now is not the time to make a change.
Mr. Icahn has not articulated a vision for Lionsgate regarding how he would improve on these results and his nominees provide no further clarity on the critical issue of leading Lionsgate into the future.
The Lionsgate Board and management team are focused on leading Lionsgate and look forward to continuing to execute on its growth strategy for the benefit of all Lionsgate shareholders. We encourage our shareholders to vote for the Company’s highly qualified nominees.
The Lionsgate Board urges shareholders to vote the WHITE proxy card to elect the Company’s highly qualified nominees and to discard any Icahn Group proxy materials.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/carl-icahn-names-his-lionsgate-board/
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
