Nelson Peltz Declares Victory in Procter & Gamble Proxy Fight
In a statement, Procter & Gamble said Mr. Peltz’s winning margin — 42,780 shares, or about 0.0016 percent
of the shares outstanding — was still preliminary and was “subject to a review and challenge period.”
The announcement threw what had already been a wild
and crazy corporate proxy battle — closely watched as a referendum on the leadership of underperforming blue-chip companies — into one that is likely to be studied for years.
A month ago at its annual shareholder meeting in Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble announced
that its preliminary count of proxy votes showed that it had fended off an effort by the activist investor Nelson Peltz to win a seat on its board.
After the market closed on Wednesday, Trian Fund Management, the investment firm controlled by Mr. Peltz, announced
that a vote count by the independent inspector of elections showed that he had, in fact, been elected.
In a stinging rebuke, the hedge fund owner William A. Ackman failed last week
in his campaign to shake up the board of ADP, the payroll-processing firm
