Boards and Shareholders: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

John Weinberg focused on directors in the 1948 senior thesis this volume reproduces and Sidney Weinberg did likewise with a 1949 speech the volume includes. John and Sidney additionally discussed shareholders, and this chapter puts into context what they had so say on point in two ways. First, the chapter engages with John and Sidney’s analysis of what is now often referred to as “corporate purpose,” which has traditionally been shareholder oriented. Second, the chapter discusses shareholder pressure on boards, focusing on contested shareholder votes and attempts to obtain corporate control incumbents opposed. The chapter argues that given where matters stood with the status of shareholders at the time John and Sidney were writing, the choices they made with their analysis of stockholders were fully explicable.