Stock Options At Broadway Are Opposed

A minority shareholder in Broadway & Seymour Inc. is loudly opposing a plan to give stock options to the company's executives.

Okabena Partnership K, a Minneapolis-based investment company that owns 5.03% of Broadway & Seymour's outstanding common shares, plans to vote against the plan at today's shareholder meeting.

Executives at Okabena said Broadway & Seymour's management and acquisition strategy has hurt the company's value. Its stock has dropped nearly 60% in the last year.

Although the Charlotte, N.C.-based company has sold some of its disparate units, it still operates "three totally separate businesses," said Gary Kohler, vice president at Okabena. "To me, that's not focused."

Mr. Kohler said Broadway & Seymour should pursue only business related to bank call centers, "an area where it has a very good lead in the market."

President and chief executive Alan Stanford said Broadway & Seymour has for several months been pursuing the course Okabena recommended. "Everything he's saying, we are doing," he said.

He called Okabena's means of communication "disruptive and selfish ... If someone has an issue, we would welcome a talk with any shareholder."

"It's a strange development," said Dimitri Triantafyllides, an analyst at Interstate-Johnson Lane, Charlotte, N.C.

He said the company "intends to focus on banking and related call-center type of areas ... I don't know if it's just a big misunderstanding, or if there are any underlying agendas."

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