Crown Castle said it reviewed Ted Miller’s application for the position of Chairman and rejected it because his accompanying resume and turnaround plan included inaccuracies and untruths.
Twenty-two years after stepping down as Crown Castle’s leader, co-founder Ted Miller wanted back one of his old jobs. Still, after the company reviewed his resume as an applicant for Chairmanship and his plans to turn around the company’s lagging stock price, they rejected his employment on Tuesday.
Crown Castle said it had confirmed that Boots Capital Management, LLC, which Miller leads, had nominated four candidates to stand for election to Crown Castle’s Board of Directors at the company’s 2024 annual stockholder meeting.
“After careful consideration of Mr. Miller and his nominees, which included interviews by members of the Crown Castle Board, the Board unanimously determined not to recommend anyone from the Boots Capital slate for election at the Company’s upcoming Annual Meeting,” Crown Castle said in a statement.
The company’s management team was confident in Crown Castle’s actions to remain well-positioned for long-term success and shareholder value creation. In particular, during the last two months, they emphasized that the company has made significant strides toward creating a more substantial and valuable Crown Castle.
Crown Castle said it had initiated a comprehensive strategic and operating review of the fiber business, formed a fiber review committee, and appointed Paul, Weiss, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and leading industry consultants to advise on the fiber review process.
Earlier this week, Miller said that the U.S. telecom infrastructure firm could sell its fiber assets for up to $15 billion if he and his partners were added to the Board of directors.
Crown Castle has also appointed three new independent directors, resulting in seven of the twelve directors having been appointed to the Board since 2020. Crown Castle’s three recent board member additions include Sunit Patel, the former CFO of Level-3 and former EVP of T-Mobile; Jason Genrich, a shareholder representative from one of the company’s largest investors, Elliott Investment Management L.P., and Bradley Singer, the former CFO of American Tower and former COO and an Investment Partner at ValueAct Capital.
Boots Capital issued a press release attaching a letter that its counsel sent to the Crown Castle. A copy of the company’s response to Boots Capital’s counsel can be found here. Crown Castle points out to Boots the inaccuracies and untruths in their claims.