In an escalating war of words, restaurant operator Lone Star Steakhouse has been giving dissident Guy Adams a public grilling. Adams, a Los Angeles-based business consultant who holds just 1,100 shares, is running for CEO Jamie Coulter's board seat. Adams, a Harvard MBA, says highly paid executives are mismanaging operations. The company's stock is down as much as 83 percent since 1996. Lone Star says Adams' lack of experience as a manager or director disqualifies him for a board seat.
Some big shareholders think otherwise.
Adams is drawing support from the nation's largest institutional shareholder, the California Public Retirement System. Shareholders will vote July 6. But now, a little guy has a chance of unseating the chairman of a company. Fed up with Morton's poor stock performance, he launched a proxy fight for three directorships. Bernstein responded by castigating Florescue's business record.