Lifeway Foods has cancelled a controversial shareholder rights’ plan days before an investor meeting will vote on the make-up of the company’s board.
The so-called ‘poison pill’ measure, in place since 2024, was abandoned in the wake of proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommending shareholders vote against Lifeway’s slate of nominees at the meeting on 17 June
In a statement yesterday (8 June), Edward Smolyansky, Lifeway’s largest shareholder and the brother of CEO Julie Smolyansky, accused the company’s board of “reactive governance”, saying the board scrapped the plan only when “external pressure leaves no alternative”. Just Drinks has approached Lifeway for comment. Last year, the US kefir maker decided to extend the shareholder rights plan until 29 October 2026.
Lifeway adopted the rights plan in November 2024 after turning down takeover interest from Danone. At the time, Mr. Smolyansky, a long-time, vocal critic of governance at Lifeway, described the extension as the “most brazen example of board and management entrenchment”, adding it was about “protecting control” of the business.