The Microsoft Corporation
The move comes after a November shareholder vote that shocked even the investors that proposed it, where Microsoft shareholders agreed to demand a report on the company's efficacy in preventing sexual harassment. Shareholders are demanding that the report analyze the company's existing policies and its efforts to create a safe work environment and pursue claims of harassment. The law firm is also set to investigate claims up to its c-suite, including co-founder Bill Gates, who stepped down from the board of directors in 2020.
"It's so rare to get a majority vote," Natasha Lamb, a founding partner at Arjuna Capital, told CNBC. However, as FTI consulting noticed in a 2021 study, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk management is becoming increasingly important to investors. According to FTI, this surge of importance began with the Coronavirus pandemic.
Amid a backdrop of economic, social, and political upheaval, a surge of approval for ESG proposals drove the number of successful E&S proposals in 2021 to 29, a significant leap from 16 in 2020. Among some major financial firms such as BlackRock Inc
Investors are also turning against board members that impede progress on ESG causes.
The best example remains Blizzard (of Activision-Blizzard,
It's been a rough January for Microsoft's share price so far, though this doesn't have much to do with the firm's ESG policies. Microsoft started trading after Martin Luther King day after suffering a considerable drop the week prior but recovered 2.15% by noon on Thursday.
