Thomas Ball, senior vice president at proxy solicitor Alliance Advisors LLC, said that even though Blackwells couldn’t win a proxy contest,
Aintabi might try to launch one in an effort to show that a large number of shareholders are supportive of his agenda. “If you get 90% of the unaffiliated shares voting in your favor, you don’t win but you have a PR victory,” Ball said. “Having something in the public domain about dissatisfaction of unaffiliated holders puts more pressure on the board, but the co-founder with the votes can
still say no.”