Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP won its standoff with Darden Restaurants Inc , convincing shareholders to replace the entire board of the Olive Garden parent, a rare victory for dissident investors.The election of Starboard's 12-director slate, announced Friday at Darden's annual meeting, was a feather in the cap for the New York hedge fund, Darden's second-largest investor with an 8.8 percent stake.It was a stinging defeat for Darden, which this year alienated investors by brushing off their vote requesting a special meeting to debate the company's then-proposed sale of its struggling Red Lobster chain.The "extraordinary" and "totally self-inflicted" loss for Darden comes as no surprise given Darden's "tone deafness" to investor wishes regarding the Red Lobster sale, said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance in Delaware.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is full service restaurant company. Shares of DRI fell by 1.83% or $-0.9/share to $48.37. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $43.56 and as high as $54.89. On average, 1793720 shares of DRI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2849822.
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