Crown Castle has won its proxy fight against its co-founder Ted Miller, after it announced that its shareholders voted for all 12 of its nominees to be elected to the company’s board of directors at the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
The result is a preliminary one, the tower company noted yesterday (May 22), until the final results are tabulated and certified by the independent inspector of election.
"We thank our shareholders for the trust they have placed in our highly qualified board members as they oversee the creation of a stronger, more valuable Crown Castle," said Crown Castle in a statement.
"Along with our new CEO, Steven Moskowitz, the board continues to take action, including conducting the strategic and operational review of our fiber and small cell business already underway, to improve performance and unlock shareholder value."
For the last few months, Crown Castle's current board has clashed with Miller, who ran Crown Castle between 1996 and 2002, over the direction of the company.
Miller nominated himself and three other nominees to be voted onto the company's board and was supported by Proxy firm Glass Lewis, which backed his challenge, via his investment vehicle Boots Capital Management, LLC.
However, another proxy advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), gave its recommendation that shareholders vote in favor of all of Crown Castle’s director nominees.
Miller had launched a proxy fight against the company while outlining his vision to change the firm's strategy.
In a 39-page plan that detailed Miller's vision at the company earlier this year, he pointed out that back in 2013, the company owned 40,000 towers and employed 1,400 people. By comparison, today the company still owns around the same amount of towers, but employs more than 2,200 people, despite cutting 15 percent of its workforce.
His most notable aim is to sell the firm's fiber assets, which he said could fetch as much as $15 billion. Last month, Crown Castle confirmed it's in talks with multiple parties over a potential sale.
In the past few months, the spat escalated between the two parties, with Miller claiming the current Crown Castle board lacks experience, something which the company hit back at.
In an open letter to shareholders, said that four of its 12 board members have relevant experience, including former interim CEO Anthony Melone, who was a senior executive at Verizon with more than 35 years of experience in the industry.
Crown Castle has also hit back at claims that Miller said the company has refused to engage with him and Boots. After filing a lawsuit against the company, Crown Castle slammed Miller as "self-serving."
