Shareholders

Shareholders of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. approved the company's executive pay package in a "say on pay" nonbinding vote Thursday. Besides weighing in on compensation during Sinclair's annual meeting, shareholders also re-elected the broadcaster's eight directors, including Chairman David D. Smith, Sinclair's chief executive officer and president. Smith's total compensation last year was $3.6 million, including $1 million base salary, $1 million cash bonus and $1.6 million in option awards, up from a total compensation of $1 million in salary with no bonuses or option awards in 2009.

Constellation Energy Group shareholders registered their opposition Friday to the pay package of Chief Executive Officer Mayo A. Shattuck III, sending a strong message of disapproval to the company's leadership after a year in which it lost nearly $1 billion. The Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. parent's board of directors is not bound by the result of the shareholders' first-ever "say on pay" vote; the board approved the compensation package for Shattuck and other senior executives earlier this year.

Constellation Energy Group's largest shareholder is voting against CEO Mayo A. Shattuck's compensation. The move by French utility EDF is largely symbolic because Constellation's board will not be bound by the outcome of the "say on pay" proposal, but it is the latest spotlight on Shattuck's pay. Two influential shareholder groups — Glass, Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services — recently advised Constellation shareholders to...

Two influential groups are advising Constellation Energy shareholders to vote against the compensation package proposed for CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III. Glass, Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services, which provide guidance on proxy proposals and corporate governance issues, say executive pay at Baltimore-based Constellation was out of line with the company's performance last year — the latest criticism of the company's compensation practices....

Constellation Energy Group shareholders have filed six lawsuits in Baltimore City Circuit Court since the power company announced in late April that it had agreed to sell itself to Chicago-based Exelon Corp. for $7.9 billion in an all-stock deal. In a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Constellation said the class-action lawsuits allege the company's directors breached their fiduciary duties because the deal does not maximize shareholder value. Within a day of the deal's announcement, law firms were seeking plaintiffs in filing class-action lawsuits challenging the proposed union, which would create the largest U.S. competitive energy provider and one of the largest utility systems in the country.

Shareholders of First Mariner Bancorp, which reached a tentative deal last month for a large capital infusion, approved Tuesday the re-election of five board members, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edwin F. Hale Sr. The Baltimore institution's annual meeting concluded quickly with shareholders ratifying Stegman & Company as the company's independent auditor. Other directors elected to three-year terms were Barry B. Bondroff, Patricia Schmoke, John Brown III and Anirban Basu.

Nick Tilson was happy enough Tuesday to be at the annual meeting of Under Armour, his favorite sportswear company, but the 11-year-old was in for an even bigger treat. "Who is your favorite college player?" Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank asked Tilson, singling him out of the crowd. "It was Cam Newton," Tilson said, astutely remembering that Newton, Heisman Trophy winner and former quarterback at Auburn University, had recently been picked up by the Carolina Panthers NFL team and was no longer a college player.

Stanley Black & Decker shareholders aren't happy about what the company is paying top executives. About 54 percent of shareholders voted against the executive compensation packages, 35 percent gave them a thumbs up and the rest abstained or were broker non-votes, the company said last week. The results are advisory only, which means the company isn't forced to change its pay practices. Nolan D. Archibald, executive chairman of the company and the former CEO of Towson-based Black & Decker, earned $28 million last year, the company reported earlier.

One hundred and sixty million dollars is a lot of money, a measure of the ambitious promise by new investors to give 1st Mariner Bank "one of the highest capital ratios of any Maryland bank" and save it from seizure by federal regulators. But it's also a measure of how far the Baltimore-based bank has fallen. When you lose nearly $100 million of shareholders' money over four years, it takes more than a couple of cupcakes to restock the larder. Success is by no means guaranteed.