CA directors react to coup attempt

Investor Sam Wyly promises to back partners

The war of words between Computer Associates (CA) and billionaire Texan investor Sam Wyly is hotting up following his attempt to overthrow the board of directors.

Last week, Wyly revealed his intention to take over the software giant by launching a proxy battle to dump the existing board, led by chairman Charles Wang and chief executive Sanjay Kumar.

Wyly, who sold his company Sterling Software to CA last year in a $4bn (£2.8bn) stock deal, is trying to drum up support among CA shareholders before the company's shareholder meeting on 29 August.

He claimed that his proposed new board would do anything it could to assist CA's channel partners.

"The partners are going to find this CA a much better partner than they have in the past," Wyly said, adding that partners "just have to go back and compare partnering with Sterling Software and Sterling Commerce versus CA".

Wyly is proposing to split the company into "small entrepreneurial groups" and turn CA into a "more entrepreneurial focused organisation".

In response, CA issued a statement which strongly disagreed with Wyly's charges and described his claims as "outrageous and self-serving assertions".

The firm also claimed that its stock value has risen by 72 per cent over the past six months and said its management and board have done well for shareholders.

Although CA's largest shareholder, Walter Haefner, who controls 21 per cent of the firm, pledged support for the existing board, Wyly claimed he would have "one more vote than the other fellow".

CA's UK channel partners seemed satisfied with the way the company operates. Tony Fisher, general sales manager at reseller Deverill, said that the company had the biggest software portfolio of any company in the world and "has not done a bad job overall".

"We have found their support to be exceptional, and CA is one of the only large software houses which has really bothered with smaller partners," he explained.

Similarly, Ross Miller, managing director of software reseller Trustmarque Solutions, said he works well with CA. "We find CA very focused in driving us to perform to targets, and they have good sales staff who know what they are doing," he said.