Internet Webcast meeting shackles the shareholders

San Jose Mercury News: Is Tom Siebel afraid of his own shareholders?
He sure is acting like it.
His company, software maker Siebel Systems, plans to conduct its annual meeting with shareholders via Internet Webcast. Shareholders who want to ask questions will have to submit them no later than two days before the meeting, via e-mail or fax. There will be no face-to-face discussions with directors and no forum for follow-up questions.
The one chance a year shareholders normally get to have a frank dialogue with the directors who are supposed to represent them is being turned into a one-way conversation scripted by the company. It gets to decide what is said and what questions get answered. At a time when shareholders have plenty of reasons to be suspicious of the governance practices of corporations, Siebel's decision is a slap in the face of its shareholders.
Webcast
The company refused to answer questions about its decision. In a statement, it said that by holding the meeting online it would reach more shareholders. Really? If the company's concern was to reach a broad audience, it could have held a physical meeting and Webcast it, as Delta Airlines did.
The Siebel statement also said the virtual meeting would help reduce costs. Really? Is the price of renting a hotel ballroom too much for Siebel, a company whose CEO made $34 million in 2002, more than any other CEO in Silicon Valley?
Perhaps Siebel will address all of the questions shareholders submit ahead of time. Perhaps it will deal with questions relating to two shareholder resolutions that the company tried to prevent from coming up for a vote.
Should shareholders expect that kind of openness from a company that's refusing to look them in the eye? Should they expect full disclosure from a company that has been sanctioned once for violating disclosure rules, and is under investigation for a second such violation?
Cyber-shareholder meetings are not illegal; they are just extremely rare, and for good reason.