Melissa Sawyer, Co-Head of S&C's Corporate Governance Practice, spoke to Corporate Counsel about the outlook for activist shareholder proposals in the tech industry. As the number of shareholder proposals increases each year, Melissa noted tech companies are still receiving equity/civil rights audit proposals.
 
“We saw these proposals mostly targeting banks and other financial services companies in 2021, and they moved to tech companies in 2022,” said Melissa. “That phenomenon is continuing.”
 
She also said that tech companies are likely to see climate-related shareholder proposals. “Since many of them have made aggressive climate pledges, they are getting political congruency proposals and congruency proposals related to the percentage of oil and gas investments in their employees' retirement plans,” she said.
 
Read “Activists' Shareholder Proposals Are Seeking Ever-Greater Detail on ESG Efforts.”