A dissident investor intensified a war of words with ValueVision Media Inc. after the company decided to schedule a special shareholder meeting later than it wanted.

The Clinton Group, a New York investment firm that acquired Value­Vision shares in recent months, said Monday that the Eden Prairie-based TV-shopping company showed "a shocking disregard for shareholder rights" with Friday's announcement that the shareholder meeting would be held in March rather than January.

"The harder you fight holding a timely vote, the lower your chances of surviving that vote," Clinton Group said in a letter to ValueVision that it also released publicly.

ValueVision shares rose 3 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $5.26 on Monday.

Clinton Group revealed its stake in ValueVision several weeks ago and said it would seek new directors and managers, arguing that the company has missed financial targets and needs a "new growth strategy."

Last week, ValueVision set the March 14 date for a special shareholder meeting after claiming that the Clinton Group didn't own enough stock to demand a January shareholder meeting. The Clinton Group said in Monday's letter that it represents more than 10 percent of the stock in Value­Vision via its own purchases and through ­custodians who are contractually bound to it.

"Nothing about Minnesota law affects our contractual power to vote our shares at the company's shareholder meetings or any other shareholder meeting," Clinton Group said. "Our lawyers will be in touch on this technical point and, if you so demand, we will have it adjudicated by a court."

Asked for a response, Tim Lynch, a ValueVision ­spokesman in New York, referred to the company's statements last week.

The investment group said ValueVision was using technicalities from a regulatory filing to deny its request for the January meeting.

"We failed to provide (in one place in our 150-plus page submission) the full ZIP code for our office because a paralegal accidentally truncated that number to four digits," Clinton Group said in its letter. Clinton also noted that two other documents contained small disputed details and said ValueVision's portrayal of them as problems was "hogwash."

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553