Kenvue Averts Proxy Battle With Starboard
Kenvue added three new board members, including Starboard chief Jeffrey Smith
Kenvue KVUE -1.13%decrease; red down pointing triangle has struck a cooperation agreement with Starboard Value, averting a proxy fight with the activist investment firm.
Kenvue on Wednesday said it has added three new board members, including Starboard chief Jeffrey Smith, who has expressed disappointment with the consumer health company’s management and share-price performance.
Smith last year said that Kenvue, the maker of Band-Aids and Tylenol that was spun out from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, should drill down on fixing its underperforming skin health and beauty segment and on improving the company’s marketing strategy.
Starboard last month nominated a slate of four director candidates, including Smith, in a bid to reconstitute Kenvue’s board.
Kenvue said it added Smith, along with independent directors Sarah Hofstetter and Erica Mann, to its board, and that Starboard will withdraw its nominees and vote its shares in favor of the Skillman, N.J., company’s board slate at this year’s annual meeting.
Neither Hofstetter, who is president of e-commerce insights platform Profitero, nor Mann, a former head of Bayer’s consumer-health division, were among Starboard’s nominees.
Analysts at Citi said they view Kenvue’s cooperation agreement with Starboard positively, saying it improves the company’s board and could lead to strategic changes at the company.
Kenvue said its board will temporarily expand to 14 directors from 11 before being reduced to 13 directors at the annual meeting.