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Lee Enterprises Announces that Director Nomination Notice from Alden is Invalid
Alden Not Entitled to Nominate Board Candidates for the 2022 Annual Meeting DAVENPORT, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NASDAQ: LEE)
About this update from Lee Enterprises, Incorporated
[{"type":"text","content":"\nAlden Not Entitled to Nominate Board Candidates for the 2022 Annual Meeting\n\n DAVENPORT, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLee Enterprises, Incorporated (NASDAQ: LEE) (“Lee” or the “Company”) announced that the notice submitted by Alden Global Capital, LLC (together with its affiliates, “Alden”), which purported to nominate three candidates to stand for election to Lee’s Board of Directors at the Company’s 2022 Annual Meeting, is invalid.\n\nLee’s Board of Directors thoroughly reviewed Alden’s notice and found that the submission did not meet several essential requirements clearly set forth in Lee’s publicly available bylaws. The Board made the following statement:\n\n“Lee’s bylaws provide a very clear and simple procedure for investors to nominate candidates for election to Lee’s Board of Directors. The nomination procedure and information requirements in our bylaws are consistent with those of the vast majority of public companies incorporated in Delaware. Over the past few years, hundreds of investors – including many that have been advised by Alden’s two law firms – have properly fulfilled these types of notice requirements and information requests.\n\n“Alden, however, failed to meet the most basic and most important requirement of our director nomination procedure: demonstrating it is eligible to nominate directors. Instead of following the straightforward process outlined in Lee’s bylaws to provide proof that Alden is an eligible shareholder, Alden attempted to circumvent the requirement by having an unrelated, third-party shareholder send a cover letter attaching an incomplete and internally inconsistent nomination notice from Alden. In addition, Alden’s nomination notice does not comply with several other substantive requirements of Lee’s bylaws.\n\n“Alden’s hasty and convoluted attempt to work around our simple and common procedure on the eve of the nomination deadline does not meet the clear requirements of Lee’s bylaws. Alden’s failure is entirely of its own making. Alden is not entitled to invent its own process for its convenience.\n\n“Lee adopted its common procedural and disclosure protections to ensure the orderly exercise of shareholder rights and the integrity of director elections. The requirements are clearly stated and have been publicly available for over two years. Lee’s Board of Directors, acting as fiduciarie...