re: Little insitutional holding suggests that this is in fact a retail stock owned mostly by individual investors
Hey Skeptic,
Rambus only has 1000 or so shareholders. Imagine this is because most of the stock owned by individual investors is held in Street name; the brokerage firm acts as the middleman. Rambus doesn't know who these retail investors are nor does Rambus care much, as we have discovered. Most shares held in Street name are not voted by the shareholder so management gets little pressure from this group.
Do not consider 25% a small institutional base; while far from a majority, it is clearly a constituency to be reckoned with and management pays attention to these shareholders. As to Mr. Steele, he can speak for himself if he is so inclined; he reads this board. Imagine his 8MM shares give him influence, but not enough influence to challenge management. He would need the support of all the institutional holders plus nearly 20MM shares held by other retail shareholders.
Just my opinion, though.
Threejack