Hi all,
I was thinking about this notion of forming an activist investor group which has been circulating in this community for a little while. To this day I think it is still unclear what that might look like, how to do it “properly”, etc.
Perhaps, at least at this stage, we don’t even need a formal group or organization at all, perhaps we just need this community that we already have to take a set of actions in this direction.
For one thing, in my opinion at least, there is no online public community space better than this Lemmy instance to get started on this. This Lemmy instance is owned and operated by DRS’d shareholders of GME and is not beholden to outside influence.
I see no reason why we can’t use these very discussions on this Lemmy instance, and elsewhere, to determine precisely what it is that we want to propose to the company, and to then proceed to formally make that proposal.
Here is rough plan of action that we GME investors could take without having to create a formal “group” entity:
- Determine first what it is exactly that we want to propose to the company. For example, there are already some great proposal ideas such as from this post by Chives
- Move to have Computershare act as custodian for IRAs
- Revise the contract of the DirectStock plan
- Issue a bulk of shares to sell directly to investors
- Request that GameStop insiders hold their shares in pure DRS
- Request GameStop to consider becoming their own transfer agent
- Request GameStop to introduce pro reward incentives for registered shareholders
- Once we know what we want to propose, create a formal proposal document that addresses, in detail, some or all of the proposal items we want. Or perhaps, create separate documents, one for each proposal idea.
- Put the proposal documents on a website. It could be any website, e.g. it could be the DRSGME.org website, it could be an entirely new clean website with nothing in it except for a single page with links to each of the proposal documents.
- Eligible shareholders from the community that meet the formal proposal requirements then proceed to individually propose to the company to review the proposals located at the specified website. E.g. it might go something like: “I propose that GameStop reviews the 6 proposal documents found at gme2023communityproposals.org”
At that point, GameStop receives some number of proposal requests from the community, maybe 5, 10, or 100, or more individuals submit such a proposal and each one is identical or very similar to one another, each of them directing the company to review the proposal documents at the target website.
GameStop confirms on their end that each individual that makes a submission in fact meets the requirements and would then have to address the proposed ideas.
Please critique this idea and offer any suggestions you may have.
Agreed completely that this are items well worth discussing! Would be great to have those discussions and developments take place here.
Each qualifying individual can only make one ‘proposal’ each year, and it’s a pretty interesting idea to suggest that the proposal could be to review a website. I don’t think that would work.
However, if we are able to develop something official which legitimate ownership can be tracked through (like an AIG running through an LLC like current groups, or a new breed using something like a DAO), then I believe that entity can solicit the board publicly much in the same way that activist investors like Ryan Cohen do.
Fair points. By the way I am not against the idea of having a more formal group, my thought process is just that since such a group currently does not exist, what can we be doing in the mean time until such time that one gets created. This is not at all my expertise and starting such a group is not something I know how to do.
I agree that pointing to a website is probably not an appropriate way to do it. I’ve never made a shareholder proposal before and I don’t really know what is appropriate or not, these are just ideas from a novice.
New idea, without the website:
- Use the power of communities such as this one to determine what exactly we would want to propose.
- Create documents / templates / resources for each discussed proposal that members of this community can use.
- Perhaps a proposal could have an identifying name such as: “The Proposal for GameStop to Become Their Own Transfer Agent”.
- Individuals who want to endorse one of the formal proposals picks the one they want and submits it.
The thing I am trying to convey here would be for a situation where, in the absence of the existence of a formal group, GameStop receives some shareholder proposals in such a fashion that it would be clear that these proposals are not uniquely coming from each of these individuals but that these individuals are effectively working together as a community, that those proposals are what the community of investors wants from the company and not just a bunch of separate individuals.
Also, is anyone able to confirm that the requirements to qualify to make a proposal are the ones specified on this sec.gov page?
“The criteria that a shareholder must satisfy to be eligible to have a proposal included in a company’s proxy statement”
-
≥$2,000 for at least 3 years
-
≥$15,000 for at least 2 years
-
≥$25,000 for at least 1 year
If you mean for GameStop, those are the correct thresholds! I did some deep dives into proposals as you may be aware - here’s a link to my WhyDRS writeup along with a link to the Taking Stock episode where I go through it on audio.
https://www.whydrs.org/shareholder-proposals-guide
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HcycLoTgOZ9nthCJa4AlA?si=c578133bd8d34a21
-
I’d love to help an investor group get started! Message me on reddit if you ever want a hand (same name)! Btw an app called wire could be a great secure messaging system for the group!
