Daily | LVMH Signs More Women on Board Pledge | Murdoch Retreats
/Boys Club
Murdoch Drops Very Big Deal
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Drops Bid for BSkyB LA Times
Responding to intense pressure from British legislators — and a humiliating vote of no confidence about the deal in Parliament — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp abruptly dropped its bid to take over Britain’s biggest satellite broadcaster.
Only 10 days ago, it seemed that Murdoch’s $12-billion bid to purchase all remaining shares of BSkyB was on a green light to approval. In light of toxic invasions of privacy by News Dorp revealed daily at this point, the deal is on hold indefinitely.
News Corp. will retain its current 39% share of BSkyB.
“There needs to be root-and-branch change at this entire organization,” Prime Minister David Cameron told lawmakers. “What has happened at this company is disgraceful. It’s got to be addressed at every level, and they should stop thinking about mergers when they’ve got to sort out the mess they’ve created.”
A respected judge will lead two public inquiries into the cellphone-hacking scandal and into the overall relationship between the media, police and politicians in Britain.
Europe Increases Women Board Representation
LVMH in Pledge to Women European Union Press Release
In a move that would never happen in America, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton on Tuesday signaled its commitment to promoting more women to senior executive positions by signing a voluntary pledge drawn up by European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The voluntary pledge, drawn up by European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, asks that the proportion of women on the conglomerate’s boards increase to 30 per cent by 2015, and to 40 per cent by 2020.
“In an aging continent, we will soon be lacking talent, so this reservoir of highly trained women is a godsend,” Reding told WWD.
LVMH - with a 17 per cent female board - is comparatively progressive in having women board members. Despite the fact that 60 per cent of university graduates in Europe are women, only 12 per cent of board members at Europe’s largest companies are women - and fewer than 3 per cent of all CEOs are female.
Europe has been far more aggressive than the U.S. in its attempts to increase women’s presence on boards. In 2002, Norway passed a law requiring corporate boards to be comprised of at least 40% women. France, Spain and the Netherlands are now enacting similar quotas, and new IMF chief Christine Lagarde advocates intervention. These same countries have legislative quotas for women in government.
Executives and policy makers in the U.S. remain divided about quotas in boardrooms or legislative bodies, despite having just 15.7% of board seats filled by women and a decrease in the number of women serving in Congress.
Catalyst, a nonprofit dedicated to working with business on the advancement of women, provides this international recap of women’s representation on publicly-held corporate boards.
