Shareholder revolt in Alberta IT company shakes up board, staff
This is a follow-up from our Trouble With Tielhard story in May’s issue of Alberta Venture.
Despite a new board of directors and new-look management team, Calgary-based software development company Teilhard Technologies insists business continues as usual. This after the company’s annual general meeting on May 27, where a group known as the Concerned Shareholders voted out the incumbent slate of Teilhard directors – which included former Alberta premier Ralph Klein and former agriculture minister Charles Mayer – using shares and proxies totalling 49 million to 29 million shares held by former directors and others.
The concerned group took issue with the company’s levels of disclosure, especially following large bonuses and huge litigation wins against the likes of Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp. in 2009. You can read about it here. The company made $85 million in lawsuits last year, then paid $45 million in legal fees to its representation, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
The fallout continued after the AGM as former president and CEO Ken Prather, head of investor relations Richard Kaye, and executives Brad Prather and Rick Shannon were released. Craig Jordheim, a non-practicing lawyer, was asked to serve as interim general manager and Jack Yee was appointed as head of investor relations – a position he held in the past.
Former Teilhard management was asked to return bonuses paid for the 2009 fiscal year.
In a telephone interview, Teilhard’s new chairman John Brown, indicated the company planned to release weekly updates on its website, saying, “There will be very good communication, and we’d like people to get their information there, rather than making conjectures on the blogs.”
When asked whether the private company intended to go public, Brown said creating a new identity on the “nervous” public stock market would be difficult right now, but the company does not rule out the possibility down the road.
He added that Teilhard’s sales and software development, as well as its relationship with Akin Gump and patent litigation in Texas, would continue – business as usual.
DISCLOSURE: The writer owns 1,200 shares in Teilhard Technologies, also known as Shopplex.com Corp., which are held in trust with his father.
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