Shareholders

Shareholders of Pittsburgh-based steelmaker Cyclops Industries Inc., overwhelmingly approved yesterday the sale of their company to Armco Inc., a steel company based in Parsippany, N.J.Both companies have stainless-steel plants in Baltimore.The merger is expected to be completed today after Armco shareholders approve it at their annual meeting in Parsippany. Armco is paying $156 million in cash and stock for Cyclops.Armco also announced yesterday that it lost $30.5 million, or 37 cents a share, during the first quarter, a significant improvement over the 1991 first quarter, when the company lost $39.6 million, or 47 cents a share.

Frederick Brewing Co. shareholders will meet Feb. 25 to vote on the company's plan for retaining its Nasdaq stock listing.Nasdaq notified the company in September that the stock would be delisted unless the share price reached at least $1 for 10 consecutive trading days by Dec. 14.The stock made its debut at $6 a share in March 1996; it closed yesterday at 37.50 cents, unchanged.The company has appealed the delisting notice and announced a planned reverse stock split to exchange one new share for each five shares owned.

At the annual shareholders meeting of Nova Pharmaceutical Corp. yesterday, some stockholders wanted to know if the 9-year-old company will ever turn a profit.Nova's response could be paraphrased in three words: Please be patient.The name of Nova's game is research and development. The Baltimore company is working to bring four products at different stages of development to the marketplace. Executives hope to gain Food and Drug Administration approval for all of them by 1994.In the meantime, profits from existing products will continue to be plowed back into testing, according to Nova's vice president of administration, Michael J. Demchuk.

A year ago, after Baltimore native Reginald Lewis died and his half-brother, Jean S. Fugett Jr., was tapped to lead TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., a local politician praised Mr. Fugett's qualifications, but added a note of caution:"If after six months or a year the company is not making progress as it should, then the shareholders I'm sure will have something to say about it," predicted state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.It took...

Michael D. Sullivan had 18 good years at Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc., building it into a powerful apparel empire where, for a time, the stock soared as high as the sales.He had two very bad years, presiding over Merry-Go-Round's too-fast growth, poor fashion choices, a slide into bankruptcy court and huge losses. Last month he resigned under pressure from creditors and shareholders.Does Mr. Sullivan, who was the company's president, now deserve a proposed severance package that includes up to $790,000 in cash?

NEW YORK -- Two shareholders of Education Alternatives Inc. filed suit against the company, some of its officers and its accountants, claiming that they had used irregular accounting methods and made unfulfilled promises to jack up EAI's stock price last fall for personal gain.The suit, filed Wednesday in federal district court in Minneapolis, claims that shareholders who bought EAI stock between Sept. 20, 1993, and Feb. 8 were misled by the company.Taking advantage of investors' interest and the resulting high stock price, company officials sold thousands of shares of stock and reaped windfall profits.

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., the Baltimore-based mutual fund company, yesterday announced this year's version of what has become an annual gift to shareholders: an increase in the quarterly dividend.The company said a dividend of 13 cents a share, adjusted for a recent 2-for-1 stock dividend, will be paid Jan. 14 to shareholders of record on Dec. 30. The payout is 23.8 percent higher than the current dividend of 10.5 cents a share.Last year T. Rowe Price raised the dividend 16.7 percent, to 10.5 cents from 9 cents -- again, adjusted for the stock split.

A powerful group of dissident shareholders is gearing up for an attack on Baltimore Bancorp, proposing to replace much of the banking company's board when shareholders meet next month.The burgeoning effort, which would pit many of the most prominent businessmen, bankers and politically connected executives in the region against one of Baltimore's largest banking companies, is apparently an outgrowth of Baltimore Bancorp's bitter rejection of a takeover offer last year.The effort reflects the rancor of shareholders that first surfaced a year ago when the parent of the Bank of Baltimore firmly and successfully spurned the unwanted $17-a-share buyout bid from First Maryland Bancorp, owner of First National Bank of Maryland.

Arrogance has never been attractive in a leader. Now, in corporate chief executives anyhow, it may be a career ender. The surprising defenestration Wednesday of Robert L. Nardelli, head of Home Depot Inc. and one of America's most imperious and highly paid chief executives, was a victory for shareholders hoping to force corporate directors to be more accountable on the increasingly incendiary issue of executive pay. Even though the board gave him $20...

The Times Mirror Co. is being sued by shareholders who claim the media company's agreement to sell its cable operations unfairly favors the controlling Chandler family.The lawsuits, filed in Delaware Chancery Court this week, contend the company's board breached its fiduciary duties by not treating the Chandler family, which controls a majority of Times Mirror voting shares, and public shareholders "equally and fairly.""It's a legal matter. We're studying it, and we can't comment any further," said Stephen C. Meier, Times Mirror's vice president for administration and community affairs.