December 13, 2005
The proposed change to the mailing of proxy materials will save public companies the substantial dollars spent in printing and mailing proxy materials to the vast majority of investors who rarely open and read them and, unfortunately, take the time to vote their shares.
Internet-savvy investors probably see SEC documents as soon as their filed, and investors with no access to the Internet will still be able to receive the requested materials via U.S. mail.
The availability of annual or special meeting materials on the Web may actually spur shareholder voting since most companies have links on their websites to the the tabulators, making it a convenient one-stop-shop for viewing and voting a proxy.