Glass Lewis Recommends Steak N Shake Stockholders Vote the Gold Proxy Card to Elect Sardar Biglari and Phil Cooley to the Board
26 Februar 2008 - 12:17AM
PR Newswire (US)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sardar
Biglari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Western Sizzlin
Corporation (NASDAQ:WEST) and The Lion Fund, LP, announced today
that Glass Lewis & Co., a leading proxy advisory firm, has
recommended that stockholders of The Steak n Shake Company
(NYSE:SNS) vote the GOLD proxy card to elect Sardar Biglari and
Philip L. Cooley to the Steak n Shake Board at the annual meeting
of stockholders scheduled to take place on March 7, 2008. The Glass
Lewis report highlights the key problems with Steak n Shake's
present leadership: "In this case, we believe that the Steak n
Shake directors have two strikes against them. Considering the long
term operational troubles and relative performance of the Company's
shares, we believe it is the board's responsibility to hold
executives accountable for their results. Clearly, this has not
happened." Commenting on the lack of accountability and
entrenchment strategies employed by Steak n Shake's board, Glass
Lewis continued, "[I]n our opinion, the current board has done
little to hold executives accountable for the long- term
performance of the business. Moreover, the directors have taken
recent action to entrench themselves on the board. As such, we
believe that new independent voices are needed on the Steak n Shake
board to effect change." Glass Lewis also took the opportunity to
address the recent action taken by the board's newly sprung
amendment to Steak n Shake's bylaws requiring 80%, instead of the
former 25%, of the shares outstanding to call a special meeting. In
its report, Glass Lewis stated that, "the directors' reactionary
bylaw amendment is deeply troubling. In our opinion, this is an
example of director entrenchment at its worst. The directors
clearly fear for their jobs." Sardar Biglari, in response to the
report, stated, "We were very pleased with Glass Lewis' endorsement
of Phil Cooley and me for election to the board and their favorable
assessment of our plan. We are gratified that Glass Lewis shares
our negative view that the current board has undertaken actions
that are clearly contrary to the best interests of the
shareholders." DATASOURCE: Western Sizzlin Corporation CONTACT:
Morrow & Co., LLC, +1-203-658-9400, or Robyn B. Mabe, Chief
Financial Officer of Western Sizzlin Corporation, +1-540-345-3195
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