Last week activist shareholder Discovery Group informed Tier Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TIER) of its intention to nominate up to two individuals for election to the company’s board at the annual 2010 meeting. According to Hedge Fund Solutions’ Catalyst Research Report, Daniel Donoghue and Michael Murphy’s Discovery Group currently owns 2,549,404 shares, or 13.5% of shares outstanding, in the company. Discovery Group won two seats on the board last year through a proxy contest, and in January of 2010 the group announced that it intended to nominate three candidates to the board at the 2010 meeting.
In February Tier Technologies and Discovery Group reached an agreement to prevent another proxy contest in which the company reduced the board from nine to seven members, separated the roles of Chairman and CEO, and reimbursed Discovery Group $175,000 in connection with the 2009 proxy contest.
Last week Discovery Group also disclosed its 5.7% active ownership stake in Atricure Inc. (NYSE: ATRC) at an average cost of $5.98 per share, bringing their total shares to 894,015.
Discovery Group was founded in 2002 by Donoghue and Murphy. Discovery Group’s funds invest mainly in small-caps, commonly taking large ownership stakes. |
