He fought a costly but entertaining proxy contest to oust the entire Yahoo!

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Thursday they went even further in an effort to avoid defeat in a proxy contest set to reach its climax.

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Advisers for the Elliott side believed that they would have prevailed in their proxy contest and won all five board seats.

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The stock ran up 70% in the three weeks prior to the United Group announcing its proxy contest and has since held steady.

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Hess had already rejected Elliott's nominees and says it believes that the ISS report on the proxy contest is flawed and doesn't address key issues.

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In July Todd launched a proxy contest for control of Birmingham.

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Regardless of that answer, in any proxy contest, like SandRidge and Dell, the endorsement of proxy voting services such as ISS or Glass Lewis is critical.

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They position activist investors to assert control by demanding board seats, marshalling shareholder support for reforms, and launching or threatening a proxy contest before management can catch its breath.

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There is no way that a 37 year old Harvard grad would be on the Motorola board unless Icahn had fought a proxy contest to get him on (along with Bill Hambrecht in a 2008 agreement).

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Meanwhile, the company lowered its full-year earnings guidance range by 25 cents per share, citing significant legal costs incurred in the first quarter as well as anticipated future legal costs, including those in connection with a proxy contest.

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