Poison Pills Lose Their Appeal

When Sun Microsystems announced last week that it would ditch its poison pill anti-takeover provision, it was hardly alone. Thanks in part to pressure from institutional activist shareholders, including hedge funds, the proportion of companies with active poison pills has recently declined for the first time in many years, according to Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm. The proportion of companies with poison pills has dropped from 55.1 percent two years ago to 51.2 percent of the 1,925 public firms included in the survey.