Appointing a director from an activist hedge fund has settled a dispute over Coinstar Inc.'s management and direction.
The Bellevue, Wash., coin-counting machine maker said Wednesday that it had appointed Arik Ahitov, a vice president at Shamrock Activist Value Fund LP, which owns 13.3% of Coinstar's stock and has been lobbying to put three people on its board.
Coinstar countered last week by offering to add a seat to its board for an independent director to be nominated by its major shareholders.
Mr. Ahitov's appointment expanded the board to eight members. Coinstar plans to add to the board again by naming an independent director by March.
Shamrock has agreed not to nominate any more people to the board at Coinstar's shareholder meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
The Burbank, Calif., fund, which has accused Coinstar's current management of delivering poor returns to shareholders, had wanted to install three board members to push the company to change its strategy.
Michael McConnell, a Shamrock managing director, said in a press release that adding Mr. Ahitov to Coinstar's board "is a positive, stockholder-friendly step that we believe will bring additional perspective and skill beneficial to the company."
