Shareholder vote shows confidence drop in Dell chairman

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Confidence in Michael Dell’s role as Dell chairman appears to have dropped after it emerged a quarter of the company’s shareholders withheld voting for the founder’s re-election.

An official filing made public yesterday revealed that in a shareholder vote 1,127,171,644 were for Mr Dell’s re-election, while 377,781,817 withheld their views.

Mr Dell received fewer ‘for’ votes than any of the 10 other members elected to the board of directors who were re-elected.

"The Dell board of Directors has expressed its unanimous confidence in Michael Dell's leadership of the company, and a majority of Dell shareholders did as well," said David Frink, from Dell corporate affairs, in response to the vote.

Earlier this month, two trade union funds - AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - sent a letter to Dell shareholders encouraging them to issue a withhold vote.

The letter read: “Based on the allegations in the SEC's complaint against our company and Michael Dell, we believe that shareholders would be better served by the removal of Michael Dell as the chairman of our company's board of directors. By voting to ‘withhold’ from Michael Dell, you can encourage the board of directors to appoint a new chairman.”

The revelations of the vote have only added to the turbulence Dell has been experiencing in 2010.

Last month, the computer manufacturer came to a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after Mr Dell and his firm were alleged to have failed to adequately disclose information to shareholders over payments related to Dell’s commercial relationship with Intel.

Dell was told to pay $100 million as part of the settlement, while the company founder personally paid out $4 million.

Neither Dell nor the chairman admitted or denied the allegations.

At the time, Sam Nunn, presiding director of the Dell Board, said: “Dell’s Board reaffirms its unanimous support for Michael Dell’s continued leadership.”

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