Ralph Nader, the scourge of American business and onetime presidential candidate, has found his next corporate demon:
Cisco Systems Inc...
Mr. Nader isn't calling for a router recall or claiming the company's networks are unsafe at any speed. Instead, he wants the tech company to pay a bigger dividend to boost its shares.
The consumer advocate's motives are far from altruistic. He is a longtime disgruntled Cisco investor who called the company's share performance "appalling." In a private letter to Cisco Chief Executive
John Chambers sent June 13, Mr. Nader blasted the CEO for not doing enough to lift shares of the technology company and said "it is time for a long overdue Cisco shareholder revolt against a management that is oblivious to building or even maintaining shareholder value," according to the letter..
Among the specific actions Mr. Nader suggested in the letter are the distribution of a one-time dividend of $1 a share and an increase in Cisco's annual dividend to 50 cents from 24 cents.
"If they can't give shareholders value, then they have to give cash," Mr. Nader said in an interview this week, adding that the company's stock has plummeted even though its profits generally were on the rise until recently.
... has been a long and painful ride for Mr. Nader as a Cisco shareholder, he said. He first bought Cisco shares in 1995 at an adjusted price of $7 and currently owns 18,000 shares, he said. In 2000, his Cisco stake was valued at $1 million, about one-third of his $3 million portfolio. As Cisco's share price swooned in the years that followed, it has represented a smaller slice of his overall investment portfolio, which he said still is valued at about $3 million. At Thursday's closing price, his stake is valued at $278,460.