Ex-Olympus CEO gives up bid to regain top job
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
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THE Olympus Corp executive who blew the whistle on dubious spending at the Japanese camera and medical equipment maker said yesterday he is giving up his fight to regain the presidency.
Michael Woodford said in a statement he "will today withdraw from any further action to form an alternative slate of directors," as he failed to win support from major institutional investors.
Olympus said it was unaware of the decision and had no immediate comment.
The deception at Olympus dates back to the 1990s, and involved an elaborate scheme to hide 117.7 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) in investment losses.
In October, Woodford confronted Olympus management about the excessive spending, which later proved to be part of the cover-up. He was quickly fired as president.
Since then, Olympus has admitted to the cover-up and has apologized.
But Woodford, 51, a Briton, who had been a rare foreigner at the helm of a major Japanese company, began his campaign for a comeback at Olympus.
He said Olympus needed a new board of directors, mostly outsiders, to make a fresh start, ensure transparency and leave the scandal behind.
In his latest statement, Woodford criticized the system of cross-shareholdings at old-style Japanese companies, in which big-name companies hold stakes in each other to ensure stability. That system also works to maintain the status quo.
The fight between Woodford and Olympus management would have come to a head at the next shareholders meeting, the date of which had not been set.
Woodford sounded upbeat last month about gaining support for his comeback, with backing from non-Japanese investors as well as the Japanese public.
But experts had said the outcome was unclear because none of the major investors, such as Japanese megabanks, were expressing support for Woodford, and that would be crucial for him to win.
"None of the major Japanese institutional shareholders have offered one word of support to me and conversely have in effect allowed the tainted and contaminated board to continue in office," he said.
Last month, Japanese prosecutors raided Olympus headquarters and the home of former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who is suspected of helping to orchestrate the cover-up.
The company, a top market-share holder in the medical equipment industry, remains under criminal investigation.
Olympus barely met its mid-December deadline to avoid being removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange by filing corrected earnings for the April-September first half and for the past five fiscal years.
In an effort to clean up its tarnished image, Olympus appointed three outsiders to a new reform committee to beef up governance and present a plan to shareholders. A separate, earlier panel is probing the scandal.
Another so-called third-party panel set up by Olympus released the findings of a probe late last year, which said top executives who were "rotten to the core" had planned the accounting cover-up over three decades.
Michael Woodford said in a statement he "will today withdraw from any further action to form an alternative slate of directors," as he failed to win support from major institutional investors.
Olympus said it was unaware of the decision and had no immediate comment.
The deception at Olympus dates back to the 1990s, and involved an elaborate scheme to hide 117.7 billion yen (US$1.5 billion) in investment losses.
In October, Woodford confronted Olympus management about the excessive spending, which later proved to be part of the cover-up. He was quickly fired as president.
Since then, Olympus has admitted to the cover-up and has apologized.
But Woodford, 51, a Briton, who had been a rare foreigner at the helm of a major Japanese company, began his campaign for a comeback at Olympus.
He said Olympus needed a new board of directors, mostly outsiders, to make a fresh start, ensure transparency and leave the scandal behind.
In his latest statement, Woodford criticized the system of cross-shareholdings at old-style Japanese companies, in which big-name companies hold stakes in each other to ensure stability. That system also works to maintain the status quo.
The fight between Woodford and Olympus management would have come to a head at the next shareholders meeting, the date of which had not been set.
Woodford sounded upbeat last month about gaining support for his comeback, with backing from non-Japanese investors as well as the Japanese public.
But experts had said the outcome was unclear because none of the major investors, such as Japanese megabanks, were expressing support for Woodford, and that would be crucial for him to win.
"None of the major Japanese institutional shareholders have offered one word of support to me and conversely have in effect allowed the tainted and contaminated board to continue in office," he said.
Last month, Japanese prosecutors raided Olympus headquarters and the home of former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who is suspected of helping to orchestrate the cover-up.
The company, a top market-share holder in the medical equipment industry, remains under criminal investigation.
Olympus barely met its mid-December deadline to avoid being removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange by filing corrected earnings for the April-September first half and for the past five fiscal years.
In an effort to clean up its tarnished image, Olympus appointed three outsiders to a new reform committee to beef up governance and present a plan to shareholders. A separate, earlier panel is probing the scandal.
Another so-called third-party panel set up by Olympus released the findings of a probe late last year, which said top executives who were "rotten to the core" had planned the accounting cover-up over three decades.
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