Computer Associates and KPMG – Always and Forever

Some folks never learn. Or maybe they have learned – how to deflect attention and keep doing what they want to do, in spite of the obvious need for change and new blood. One of the first posts I wrote, almost a year ago, was about the connections between Computer Associates, (or CA as they prefer to be called now,) Home Depot and the Diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island in New York. There’s also a connection to the New York Stock Exchange. What’s more interesting is how such different people came together to promote common business and personal objectives. But, I guess, greed has no ethnicity or overt prejudices.

In spite of the recent reminders of what happened at CA not so long ago, their stockholders, or rather their management, since proxy votes are non-binding, have reelected the full slate of Directors and their incumbent auditor KPMG, again.

CA shareholders re-elect D’Amato
“Shareholders of CA Inc., the former Computer Associates, re-elected all 12 directors Wednesday, ignoring recommendations by two proxy advisory firms to withhold votes for former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato…The two proxy firms had recommended action against D’Amato because he was a member of the board’s audit committee during periods of financial irregularities several years ago. One of the firms also recommended withholding votes for director Jay Lorsch, a Harvard professor who chairs its governance committee, for nominating D’Amato.

There was no debate about the directors’ re-election during the shareholders session… John Swainson portrayed the software maker…on the road to recovering from the $2.2 billion accounting scandal that recently landed its former chief executive Sanjay Kumar in federal prison to serve a 12-year term.”