Sirius XM Radio
A whopping 955,186,887 shares were voted against retaining Black on Sirius XM's board, compared with the 512,411,779 shares cast to keep him aboard.
Oh, and the vote was irrelevant.
The Wall Street Journal points out that Black gets to stick around -- despite the minimal support from shareholders who are supposed to have a say in makeup of a company's board -- because Sirius XM uses plurality voting rules in filling out its board.
"The slate will always be elected, regardless of votes, so long [as] no challengers for open board seats receive more 'for' votes," the Journal explains. Since the media giant nominated only eight directors for eight slots, Black was going to be retained no matter what.
So why is there a groundswell against Black?
It's not because he isn't competent or qualified. Black is the CEO and co-founder of Apollo Global Management
An absentee director -- if that is the case -- isn't necessarily the end of the world. Black's compensation of $70,000 a year in stock option grants is modest, and surely he must be a contributor outside the board meetings if the company keeps him on. However, these are times at Sirius XM that demand the board's complete attention.
Liberty Media
Then again, one can also argue that Karmazin and his fellow executives are there to serve the shareholders first. If the wishes of investors are being ignored in the board vote, one can argue that Karmazin is already working for somebody else -- himself.
Running of the bulls
I remain bullish on Sirius XM's future. It should come as no surprise that I'm promoting the CAPScall initiative for accountability by reiterating my bullish call on Sirius XM for Motley Fool CAPS.
XM Satellite Radio was a Rule Breakers recommendation before the Sirius XM merger. It's now gone from the scorecard, but if you want to discover the newsletter service's next Rule-Breaking multibagger, a free report reveals all.