(Reuters) – Activist investor Starboard Value LP on Monday launched a proxy battle to take greater control of cloud services provider Box Inc as it nominated four directors for election to the company’s board.
Starboard, which owns about 8% of Box, had earlier said the company had failed to capitalize on the work-from-home trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, falling behind its cloud computing peers.
Box did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The activist investor said last week it planned to nominate directors to Box’s board. In response, Box said it does not believe more changes to the board were “warranted or in the best interests of all stockholders,” highlighting that it had added directors to its board under an agreement with Starboard last year.
“While last year we were pleased to reach agreement on the appointment of two new independent director candidates, it is now clear that those appointments have not created enough change,” Starboard said in a letter addressed to Box’s shareholders on Monday.
Starboard’s nominees include Deborah Conrad, who previously served as chief marketing officer at Intel Corp, and Peter Feld, managing member and head of research at Starboard.
(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
