Wal-Mart's Waltons Gaining More Active Role at First Solar
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sometimes it takes an activist investor slate of directors to engineer a rebound in a technology firm potentially headed the way of the dinosaur.
That may not be the case at floundering solar company First Solar(FSLR) though.
The Walton family of Wal-Mart(WMT) fame, which is First Solar's largest investor, is about to take a larger oversight role related to its huge investment in the company. A representative of the Walton family's investment arm has been nominated to an expanded First Solar board of directors, according to a filing for its annual meeting that the solar company made with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
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While a church investment group has placed on the First Solar annual meeting docket for this year a proposal to require the company to consider hiring women and minorities for the board - the company's current eight directors are all men - First Solar's nomination of Richard Chapman, CFO of Walton Enterprises and director of the Walton family office, makes the most sense, given the crash of the solar company in the past year and an all-time low stock price.
The Waltons own more than 112 million shares of First Solar, four times as much as the second-biggest shareholder, Los Angeles-based money manager, Capital World Investors.
CNBC recently reported that First Solar was looking for candidates to expand its board as a breaking news item, and as if there would be a "fresh blood" board-driven turnaround. First Solar is adding two new independent director slots and has retained an executive search firm to help identify candidates, the company said in a release on Wednesday.
However, in searching all the way from its Tempe, Ariz. base to Wal-Mart's Arkansas empire, First Solar hasn't really searched very far yet.
In fact, cynical market commentary has been voiced since First Solar chairman Michael Ahearn returned to the company's CEO slot late last year that Ahearn is primarily working for the Waltons.
Or as Gordon Johnson of Axiom Capital and a long-time First Solar critic said, "They all work for the Waltons."
In working for the Waltons, the implication is that Ahearn's return to First Solar will be considered a success if and only if he can engineer a sale of the solar company at some premium that big shareholders can stomach.