California, May 28: PeopleSoft Inc. shareholders have narrowly rejected a proposal that the business software maker expense employee stock options, a nonbinding resolution that had been opposed by PeopleSoft's board and chief executive. With votes representing 88 per cent of the company's shares cast, the final tally was 53 per cent against the proposal and 47 per cent in favour.
"The percentage doesn't cause us to rethink our conclusion," Chief Financial Officer Kevin Parker told investors at the sparsely attended meeting, which was held near the company's headquarters in Pleasanton, California.
The vote at PeopleSoft's annual meeting came almost a week after shareholders at Intel Corp. voted down a similar proposal to break with a practice used by many Silicon Valley companies that rely on options to compensate workers.
Shareholders of Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines Corp. also narrowly rejected similar proposals, recently. Bureau Report