TV/Internet shopping firm ValueVision Media Inc. is seeking to delay until early next year a dissident stockholder group's request for a special shareholder meeting to oust some management and board members.
ValueVision, based in Eden Prairie, operates what has been known as the ShopNBC cable, satellite and broadcast channel and retail website. In May it said it would rebrand the ShopNBC channel and website as ShopHQ.
"As a retailer, ValueVision's busiest season comes during the holiday season, which is now upon us," ValueVision Chairman Randy Ronning said in a letter to the Clinton Group, which owns more than 5 percent of the company's stock. The company is asking the group to "withdraw your request for a special meeting until after the end of the holiday season."
In the letter, Ronning offered to evaluate the qualifications of any of the Clinton Group's proposed directors.
The Clinton Group has said that it plans to ask shareholders at a special meeting to remove the majority of ValueVision's directors, expand the board's size and elect seven of its own board nominees.
The group has said in government filings that ValueVision CEO Keith Stewart has missed targets and that the company is underperforming competitors. In late October, the group offered to invest at least another $25 million at "a substantial premium to the stock price" if Stewart was replaced and its board members were appointed.
STEVE ALEXANDER
