Meta, This struck me too, particularly as I feel the other 40% if they did have a good look at it would have come to the same conclusion as you and I and most other HC posters. Many shareholders including people I talked to today have shares by accident: via takeovers, splits, random choice, a recommendation in an investment newsletter, etc...Many also bought in high and are now holding a small $ value and feel understandably down about the whole saga. Many probably know less about DTE and the stock market than I know (and I don’t think I know that much about either). There is apathy and it is also often not worth their time or energy to research so they often don’t vote or default to the chairman whom they should be able to trust to do the right thing. I don’t blame them. Boards that don’t do the right thing by all shareholders and who are corrupt, negligent, dishonest etc… effectively prey on small shareholders or put their own interests first should be taken to task though. I am NOT saying the DTE board has done this even though they have clearly railroaded the company off this cliff. How to get small shareholders to act without a campaign and a lot of effort (i.e. get the DTE register and write to everyone) is a difficult question and I don’t have an answer on that apart from more regulation, and who wants that? What we have today is the equivalent of a government being elected with a 40% informal vote.
DTE Price at posting:
13.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
