Logitech chair wins power struggle at AGM

Logitech International founder Daniel Borel on Wednesday failed in his attempt to oust Chairperson Wendy Becker. Keystone-SDA

Logitech International co-founder Daniel Borel's attempt to oust Wendy Becker, chair of the board of directors, has once again failed. A majority of shareholders re-elected her at the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday.

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Guy Gecht, who Borel had wanted to replace Becker, only received 14% of the votes. But Gecht removed himself from the race just before the run-off vote: “I will not accept my election if I am elected,” he told the shareholders in Lausanne.

Borel also lost out on another point: Group CEO Hanneke Faber was elected to the board of directors, which Borel as well as the Ethos investment foundation and the Actares shareholders’ association rejected.

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The election results did not go down well with investors. Logitech shares extended their losses sharply after Becker’s election and were down around 5% one hour before the close of trading.

Second palace revolt fails miserably

Borel had already tried to force Becker from the board last year and failed miserably. She was re-elected with 96% of shareholder votes. Two months ago, Logitech then announced that Becker would no longer be a candidate at the annual general meeting in fall 2025. However, Borel wanted her to step down this year.

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In a long-running dispute, the company founder has criticised Becker several times. He accuses her of lacking the expertise to run a technology company like Logitech. He also believes that she should have implemented cost-cutting measures earlier after the pandemic boom.

She should also have replaced the then-CEO Bracken Darrell sooner. In addition, the business was not performing well and there was a toxic corporate culture, Borel claimed. The company founder wanted to replace Becker with Gecht, who, according to unanimous opinion, had done a good job as interim CEO for seven months last year.

Court rules in Borel’s favour

The dispute escalated and the courts had to intervene. At the end of July, a Vaud district court ordered the company to put Borel’s proposal to nominate Gecht as the chair candidate to the board of directors on the agenda.

Logitech had refused to put the proposal of the company founder, who owns 1.5% of Logitech shares, to the vote. However, Gecht had already declared at the time that he did not want to become the company chair.

Borel is also not satisfied with the new CEO Faber. Like Becker, she lacks “sufficient know-how and experience in the high-tech industry”, Borel said. The 55-year-old Dutchwoman joined the French-speaking Swiss group from consumer goods giant Unilever.

Faber himself was reluctant o comment. In an interview with Schweiz am Wochenende last Saturday, however, she declared: “The figures speak for themselves, we have two good quarters behind us. And I personally think we have a fantastic corporate culture, one of the best I have ever experienced.”

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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