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Ted Miller fought for control over the tower company he helped create more than 20 years ago
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Crown Castle rejected his efforts, saying the company has the right board members to guide it through its comprehensive strategic and operational review
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Crown Castle emerged triumphant at the 2024 annual stockholders meeting, keeping its entire slate of 12 nominees on the Board of Directors
In a spectacle nearly reminiscent of the HBO drama “Succession,” Crown Castle emerged victorious in its mission to stave off a co-founder and former CEO from injecting his regime into its Board of Directors and rebooting the tower company.
In fact, based on preliminary information from the company’s proxy solicitor, Crown Castle’s entire pack of 12 nominees was elected to the board at the company’s 2024 annual meeting of stockholders this week.
“We thank our shareholders for the trust they have placed in our highly qualified board members as they oversee the creation of a stronger, more valuable Crown Castle,” the company said in a statement today.
“Along with our new CEO, Steven Moskowitz, the board continues to take action, including conducting the strategic and operational review of our fiber and small cell business already underway, to improve performance and unlock shareholder value.”
Fierce reached out to Miller for comment on today’s board nominations and will update this article if we hear back.
Back story
The drama ensued when Miller, who led Crown Castle from around 1994 to 2002, and his investment vehicle Boots Capital Management launched an initiative to gain four board seats, including for himself and his son-in-law.
Miller complained that the existing Crown board was an abysmal failure, responsible for Crown underperforming its peers for 10 years, slow to act on selling the fiber business and accountable for the “unwise decision” of taking Dish Network to trial over its alleged use of three additional feet of tower site space, among other things.
Earlier this year, Miller shared a 39-page plan with the board of Crown Castle spelling out its problems and his suggestions for fixing them. Part of his strategy involved the use of digital twin and AI technology to increase efficiencies. He said Crown Castle currently has 18 towers for each employee, “the worst” among the three major tower providers, and he wanted to see that number increase to 23 for each employee by 2026.
Trouble brewing
Issues started coming to a head at Crown Castle late last year when Elliott Management pressed for new leadership and a review of Crown’s fiber business. Soon after, Crown Castle CEO Jay Brown announced his departure after nearly 25 years at the company.
In January, Crown named Tony Melone, who was CTO at Verizon from 2010-2015, to serve as interim CEO while they conducted a search for a permanent replacement. In April, Crown named tower industry veteran Steven Moskowitz, formerly with American Tower, as CEO.
Moskowitz’s appointment was too soon for him to report much during the company’s April 17 Q1 earnings call, but board Chairman Robert Bartolo said they had recently engaged with “multiple parties” that expressed interest in a potential transaction involving all or part of the fiber business. Discussions are ongoing, he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
From an investor perspective, “it’s good to hear that multiple parties have expressed interest” in the fiber assets, wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Nick Del Deo in a report following the earnings call. That the company is considering separating the fiber business and small cell assets and is open to varying types of proposals also is encouraging, he added.