AT&T Shareholder Vote on Network Neutrality Surpasses Critical Threshold
For Immediate Release:
Shares worth more than $11.4 billion voted in favor; Similar votes upcoming at Verizon and Sprint
April 27, 2012: A shareholder proposal calling upon AT&T Inc. (NYSE – T) to publicly commit to network neutrality principles on its wireless networks attracted important support in initial voting results released today at the company’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City.
The proposal, which was voted on for the first time this year, attracted at least 5.9% of the votes cast in this year’s proxy vote at AT&T, according to preliminary results released by the company. That percentage could climb higher in the final tabulation. By garnering support from more than 3 percent of voting shareholders, net neutrality will be assured a continued place on next year’s ballot. Based on the company’s recent share price, the results mean that investors holding stock worth more than $11.4 billion voted in favor of the resolution.
Similar proposals regarding wireless network neutrality are scheduled for votes at the upcoming annual meetings of Verizon Communications (NYSE – VZ) on May 3 and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE – S) on May 15.
“We fully intend to continue pressing these issues which are important to shareholder and public interests, and we look forward to further dialogue with AT&T management,” said Jonas Kron, Vice President of Trillium Asset Management, LLC, who presented the proposal to AT&T shareholders, senior management and board members at the annual meeting.
“Network neutrality has significant implications for the American economy and the large institutional investors whose returns depend on its performance,” according to Laura Campos, director of shareholder activities at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. “The vote at AT&T indicates that investors are beginning to recognize the economic importance of an open and free Internet and vote their shares accordingly.”
Network neutrality is a core principle that has guided the Internet since its inception. This principle enables an open Internet by making sure that companies that provide Internet access treat all content equally—regardless of source, destination or ownership. This prevents a handful of large companies from paying wireless providers premium rates in exchange for faster speeds on their sites than others receive. Without it, consumers risk experiencing a dramatically different Internet, where large corporate sites able to pay premium costs load and operate at fast speeds while smaller newer sites struggle to function and compete with slower speeds. Numerous studies also demonstrate that network neutrality is important to the prosperity of Internet Service Providers and economic growth.
“This vote at AT&T is important because its signals to media and technology companies that investors believe network neutrality is important – comparable to social issues confronting other sectors where investors have successfully pressed for greater accountability,” said Michael Connor, Executive Director of the Open Media and Information Companies Initiative, or Open MIC (www.openmic.org), which helped formulate the shareholder resolutions.
Connor noted that the vote in favor of network neutrality principles compared very favorably to those on proposals regarding other social and environmental issues, in which companies have agreed to adopt carbon emission targets, adopt equal benefit policies for all employee families and disclose political donations. For example, a current campaign led by the Center for Political Accountability, seeking to require corporate disclosure of political spending, started in 2004 with an average 9.1% vote in favor. Since then, 100 major public corporations, including half of the S&P 100, have adopted political disclosure and accountability.
The shareholder proposals at AT&T, Verizon and Sprint were allowed on the proxy ballots following an SEC staff ruling earlier this year which denied “no-action” requests by the companies. The companies had sought to block shareholders from voting on the proposals by arguing, among other things, that network neutrality was not a “significant public policy issue.” The SEC staff rejected that argument in view of what it called “the sustained public debate over the last several years concerning net neutrality and the Internet and the increasing recognition that the issue raises significant policy considerations.”
By winning more than three percent of the vote at AT&T, the proposal reached an important qualifying threshold set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for inclusion in next year’s proxy voting.
The proposals at AT&T and Verizon were filed by Trillium Asset Management (on behalf of its clients), the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, and several individual investors including Mike D of the Beastie Boys. The proposal at Sprint was filed by the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
The proposals ask each company to publicly commit to operate its wireless broadband network “consistent with network neutrality principles – i.e., operate a neutral network with neutral routing along the company’s wireless infrastructure such that the company does not privilege, degrade or prioritize any packet transmitted over its wireless infrastructure based on its source, ownership or destination.”
For more information:
Michael Connor, Executive Director, Open MIC, 646-493-9704, mconnor@openmic.org
Jonas Kron, Vice President, Trillium Asset Management, (503) 592-0864, jkron@trilliuminvest.com
Laura Campos, Director, Shareholder Activities, Nathan Cummings Foundation, 212 787 7300 ext. 3615, Laura.Campos@nathancummings.org
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Trillium Asset Management, LLC is the oldest independent investment advisor devoted exclusively to sustainable and responsible investing. With over $1 billion in assets under management, Trillium has been managing equity and fixed income investments for high net worth individuals, foundations, endowments, religious institutions, and other nonprofits, since 1982. A leader in shareholder advocacy and public policy work, Trillium’s goal is to deliver both impact and performance to its investors.
The views expressed are those of the authors and Trillium Asset Management, LLC as of the date referenced and are subject to change at any time based on market or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. These views may not be relied upon as investment advice. The information provided in this material should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such securities have been or will be profitable. To the extent specific securities are mentioned, they have been selected by the authors on an objective basis to illustrate views expressed in the commentary and do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for advisory clients. The information contained herein has been prepared from sources believed reliable but is not guaranteed by us as to its timeliness or accuracy, and is not a complete summary or statement of all available data. This piece is for informational purposes and should not be construed as a research report.
Q&A With New Trillium CEO Matt Patsky
Your investment career started in 1984 at Lehman Brothers. How did you find your way into SRI?
My first experience with socially responsible investing (SRI) came a bit early in life. Growing up I had a keen interest in the stock market and actually made my first investment in a mutual fund at age eleven. With only $500 saved from shoveling driveways, mowing and raking lawns, I decided a balanced mutual fund was the best way to start investing. The fund I selected was Dreyfus Third Century Fund, which was one of the earliest SRI mutual funds. It made intuitive sense to me even back then that investing should include looking at the sustainability of the business practices of the companies you are investing in.
After graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, I was recruited to work as part of the technology equity research team at Lehman Brothers in 1984. While working at Lehman, I began to explore incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the research I was doing. In 1989, as I shifted into the consumer growth space, I began to incorporate these factors into my research.
What was attractive to you about Trillium?
Trillium is one of the iconic brands in the SRI world that I first interacted with as a client. While looking at incorporating ESG factors in my research at Lehman, I met Joan Bavaria of Franklin Research, as it was known then, and was an early subscriber to their newsletter Insight. Joan, along with a number of the early visionaries in the field, had encouraged my thoughts of building a franchise within the sell-side that incorporated these broader issues.
I had long admired the work of both Joan Bavaria and Trillium and was quite humbled to have received a call asking if I would consider the role of CEO of the company.
Trillium’s been a pioneer in SRI research and advocacy since 1982. The field has grown exponentially since then in assets under management, the range of investment products offered and in many other ways. How do you see Trillium evolving in this more competitive environment?
I was pleased to find in my due diligence of Trillium that not only did the company have a brand with authenticity in the area of SRI research and advocacy, but a solid long-term 10 year track record of investment out performance. This is a competitive advantage that I do not believe is well known in the marketplace. Trillium has a long and well- established leadership role in shareholder advocacy. This commitment will remain as strong under my leadership and is a distinct differentiator versus our competition. The firm also was an early pioneer in the field of community investing. This is also a key competitive advantage.
What do you envision for the future of Trillium?
Trillium is one of the oldest and strongest franchises in the SRI industry. We have been incorporating environmental, social and governance factors since 1982. As the broader investment universe is beginning to look at these factors as a meaningful long-term contributor to alpha generation, I believe we are in a very enviable position. We, in the SRI community, have long been waiting for institutional investors, particularly the endowment, foundation and retirement plan market, to recognize the benefit of incorporating non-financial metrics into the investment process. That day is finally arriving and Trillium stands to be a major beneficiary of this trend. I believe we will look back five years from now and still stand as the largest independent, employee owned firm in the SRI industry.
Trillium Urges FCC to Adopt Strong Open Internet Principles
Last week Trillium Asset Management Corporation and OpenMIC filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in support of its efforts to protect the free and open nature of the Internet. The FCC initiative by the Obama Administration, also referred to by many as Net Neutrality, is vitally important to our rights to freedom of speech and our ability to speak out for social justice. It helps preserve the Internet as a level playing field where individuals and groups can speak up on behalf of social justice without censorship or interference from the mainstream media filters. It is also a vital component of our economic recovery. As a report from the New York University Institute for Policy Integrity recently concluded, the open and free Internet accounts for billions of dollars of economic value for Americans.
See our comments here.
“Pebble Mine opponents release investor advisory” [National Jeweler]
Trillium Senior Social Research Analyst Jonas Kron is quoted in article below. Click on the link to view article.
http://www.nationaljewelernetwork.com/njn/content_display/fashion/jewelry-fashion-reports/e3i0a82a4070f2192ecae9600cdd36fd349
National Jeweler, October 29, 2009
Big Victory for Shareholder Rights!
October 27, 2009 - This morning the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a reversal in policy that will allow shareholders to resume filing resolutions that ask companies to discuss the risks associated with climate change, toxic chemicals, rising health care costs and other significant social and environmental policies issues. Under the Bush Administration, the “risk evaluation” exclusion severely cramped the ability of shareholders to hold corporations fully accountable for the financial, environmental and social implications of their policies in these high profile issue areas.
Trillium Asset Management Corporation (“Trillium”) has been a leader in pushing the SEC on this issue. In September, Jonas Kron, Esq. of Trillium spoke directly with the SEC about this issue in his capacity as a member of Social Investment Forum’s Advocacy & Public Policy Working Group. Trillium welcomes the expanded opportunities provided by this policy reversal to advocate for greater corporate transparency and responsible corporate behavior. We commend the SEC for continuing to empower shareholders and see this as an important step in its efforts to strengthen the proxy process. Trillium looks forward working with the SEC on further improvements to the process.
For further information, contact Jonas Kron at 503-592-0864.
Trillium Lobbies Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders in Support of Sustainability Reporting Proposal
Click here to read the press release.
Boston, MA (April 27, 2009) Trillium Asset Management Corporation (“Trillium”) is joining two nonprofit advocacy organizations, the International Labor Rights Forum and the International Rivers Network, in calling on fellow Berkshire Hathaway investors to back a proposal on the agenda for the company’s upcoming May 2, 2009 annual meeting which requests that Berkshire prepare a Sustainability Report on its performance on environmental and social issues. Boston-based Trillium today released a letter filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission and sent to Berkshire’s nearly 2,000 institutional shareholders, who own more than $26 billion in its preferred and common stock. The letter urges a vote in favor of the proposal, which was submitted by Berkshire shareholder Joseph G. Petrofsky. The letter comes in the wake of a report recently issued by leading shareholder advisory firm PROXY Governance that recommends a vote in favor of the resolution, calling Berkshires disclosure of environmental and social issues affecting its portfolio relatively poor, and concluding that additional disclosure in this area would help shareholders. Read more.
Putting China on the Spot for Sudan
Seattle Times Publishes Op-Ed by Open MIC and Trillium
The Seattle Times published an Op-Ed by Open MIC and Trillium Asset Management Corporation: “FCC shouldn’t tolerate abuses by Internet’s corporate gatekeepers.”
The Op-Ed challenges Comcast, AT&T and a host of other Internet Service Providers for their secretive, invasive and deceptive practices that compromise consumers’ privacy and freedom of expression.
To read the article, click here http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008114549_openoped15.html
