The Death of Intel: When Boards Fail - by Doug O'Laughlin
www.fabricatedknowledge.com/p/the-death-of-intel-when-boards-fail
What Jamie wrote
Great writeup about what has been happening in the Intel board while the company has been falling apart. Sadly it is a reasonable look at how all corporate governance seems to work these days. The reality is that the vast majority of shareholders are passive and voting their shares and governance is actually a chore they would rather avoid. Who wants accountability for those votes? Instead follow ISS.
The ship captain (shareholders) are asleep, and most who are smart enough to care to know to avoid the neighborhood that's Intel. Meanwhile, the board made voting recommendations yearly, and Glass Lewis and ISS went with the board. Intel's board is being run on autopilot, and that's how we got the list of supremely unqualified board members. This is an excellent example of how boards fail. No one raised their hand to stop the autopilot, and now the formerly greatest American semiconductor company is in shambles.
There are some recent good changes. We'll see if it is enough.
Things are changing fast. They just appointed two new board members, the former CEO of ASML and the current interim CEO of Microchip, to the board. This is an excellent step in the right direction, but it's like hiring a surgeon and an oncologist after the cancer has moved to stage 4. It might be too late, but it sure is the right direction.
I don't feel like this is all just an interesting story to watch. Intel is a critical US company in the space. It is hard to see how the US can continue with the strong position we've had without domestic companies like Intel. Relying on others, particularly foreign companies, for such a critical industry doesn't seem wise. We need Intel to turn around.