No change at CA: Wang beats off Wyly

Coup fizzles out and comes to nothing...

Software giant, Computer Associates has emerged from its shareholder meeting with its board unchanged. The company had suffered a battle royal over the last few weeks as a major shareholder vied for an overthrow of the present board of directors, including Sanjay Kumar, recent CEO appointee and founder and chairman, Charles Wang. Immediately after the shareholder meeting, the company issued a statement confirming the 10 board nominees', all incumbent directors, ratification by shareholders, with a 75 per cent majority. Pretender to the CA throne Sam Wyly gets nothing. In the statement, Charles Wang said: "We are pleased that our shareholders believe the existing members are the best qualified to continue driving CA's strong momentum for growth and enhanced shareholder value." Analysts believe that shareholders voted in their best interests. Yankee Group research analyst Neal Goldman thought Wyly's chances of success were limited at best. He said: "I didn't think he had a chance to overthrow the whole board. He maybe had a chance to get some representation, but in the end the shareholders realised that CA isn't unique in its problems, so they stuck with the horse that got them there." Last week, the situation looked grave for the CA board when one of its institutional investors, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) threw its weight behind the Wyly camp, after he promised to only push for board representation and the removal of Wang. However, shareholders were wooed intensively by the incumbent board throughout the campaign with the company sending out personal letters to each of them.