By Chris Cooper - Dec 1, 2011 8:00 AM GMT+0700
Michael C. Woodford, the former president and chief executive officer of Olympus Corp., resigned from the company’s board and urged a shareholder meeting to allow stock owners to choose new management.
Woodford, who was fired after questioning $1.4 billion in takeover costs now at the center of criminal investigations, said in an e-mailed statement it was “inappropriate” for current management to decide on new board members. Olympus declined to comment on his resignation, spokesman Tsuyoshi Kitada said by phone.
The 51-year-old British citizen met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. this week, following meetings with Japanese officials last week, to discuss payments made in the purchase of Gyrus Group Plc and writedowns of stakes in three other takeovers. The camera maker has admitted former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and senior aides colluded to cover up losses.
“It’s completely inappropriate for the current management team, who are tainted by its past mistakes, to make choices about the identity of new board members,” Woodford said in the statement. “I intend to liaise with all interested stakeholders with a view to formulating a proposal for the constitution of a new board.”
The stock of the 92-year-old camera and endoscope maker has slumped more than 50 percent since Woodford was fired, on concerns about the scale of the losses, the threat of delisting and continuing criminal investigations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Cooper in Tokyo at ccooper1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ben Richardson at brichardson8@bloomberg.net
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