In the context of email marketing, optimizing for short-term outcomes such as whether a consumer opens an email solicitation may lead a firm to send emails that have eye-catching subject lines but don't ultimately lead to purchases.
The company announced last week that it had hired a second proxy solicitation firm, Innisfree, to assist its longstanding firm, Georgeson Shareholder Communications.
It has hired Innisfree M&A, a proxy solicitation firm, in preparation for a possible proxy fight to oust Yahoo's board.
In its approach to The Times, Harbinger has hired a proxy solicitation firm, but several investors said they had not heard directly from the hedge funds.
Mr. Hewlett, the oldest son of a co-founder, William Hewlett, said last week that he and his family had hired a proxy solicitation firm of their own, MacKenzie Partners.
Georgeson, a proxy solicitation firm, issued a report to clients this week advising that they plan for what they will do if no one wins a director's election.
The asset manager disclosed on Tuesday that it had hired D. F. King & Company, a proxy solicitation firm, in what may be the first step toward a fight against Dell's board.
"It surprises a lot of our clients, but the Sarbanes-Oxley bill is simply not warding off a record number of shareholder resolutions," said David Drake, a managing director of Georgeson Shareholder Communications, a proxy solicitation firm.
Thus the note, Mr. McGlynn said, "so people won't be disappointed and say, 'I was expecting more of a meal.' " John Wilcox, vice chairman of Georgeson Shareholder Communications, a proxy solicitation firm in New York, said the note was unusual, but the move to lighter fare was not.
