Jason Ader withdraws IGT board bid
Gaming supplier had urged shareholders to vote against the election of Jason Ader and three other connected to former CEO Charles Mathewson.
IGT has confirmed that Jason Ader has withdrawn his intent to nominate himself as a director candidate at the company’s upcoming annual shareholder meeting following the supplier’s claims that his intentions were motivated by ex-CEO Charles Mathewson’s dispute with his former employer.
Ader, along with Mathewson and two others linked to New York-based investment firm Ader Management group, had put himself forward to join IGT’s board of directors.
However IGT said in a statement earlier this week that it does not support any of the nominations, claiming Mathewson’s motivations for directorship are the result of his “long-running dispute” with IGT since his retirement in 2003. It instead asked shareholders to vote for the Board’s eight “highly qualified and experienced directors”, including current CEO Patti Hart.
Despite withdrawing his own nomination, Ader has indicated that he still intends to nominate the remaining three director candidates to stand for election.
Ader Management claims to own more than eight million shares of IGT common stock, or approximately 3% of total IGT shares.
IGT said it “strongly believes” that the Ader Group nominees would, if elected, seek to advance an agenda that is “not in the best interests of all IGT shareholders”.
“Following Mr. Mathewson’s retirement in 2003, he has repeatedly attempted to exert influence over the Company’s operations and extract personal financial benefits at the expense of all other shareholders. In 2010, the IGT Board severed all financial ties with Mr. Mathewson,” it said.