With more and more investors turning to the Internet to gather and share information about companies, the power of online chat rooms and message boards to wreak havoc on companies is growing exponentially. Stories of stock prices plunging as a result of false or misleading information being spread over the Internet are becoming more frequent and commonplace.
However, stock prices are not the only things being targeted these days. Rather, some online investors are now using the Internet to plot and execute revolts against corporate management teams, hoping to overthrow top-level managers and replace them with managers more to the investors’ liking. In response, lawyers and their corporate clients are attacking such practices and asserting that such tactics violate the federal securities laws, particularly the rules regarding the solicitation of proxies.
