Shareholders of European pay TV giant Sky on Friday approved the company’s name change, from BSkyB previously, after its recent acquisitions of Sky Italy and a stake of nearly 90 percent in Sky Deutschland.
At the company’s annual shareholder meeting in London, they also re-elected all board members, including 21st Century Fox co-COO James Murdoch and Fox president and COO Chase Carey. Sky is led by CEO Jeremy Darroch who is also a board member. The chairman is Nicholas Ferguson.
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Fox controls a 39 percent stake in Sky and sold its holdings in the Italian and German pay TV platforms to the company.
James Murdoch’s re-election was opposed by 4.35 percent of the shareholder vote, compared with 3.89 percent last year. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which brings together 61 U.K. pension funds, once again advised shareholders to vote against the son of Fox chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch was the CEO of BSkyB between 2003 and 2007 and then chairman until April 2012. Since then, he has served as a non-executive director on the company’s board.
Meanwhile, about 30 percent of shareholders on Friday voted against the executive compensation packages at the company or abstained from voting in a sign of protest against current pay disclosures that shareholder advisory firm ISS has criticized, among others. The firm said the company should detail operational targets that the company must reach to ensure executives get bonus and stock awards. Sky has said it would disclose more details with delays to not share commercially sensitive information with competitors.
Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
