A meeting of Baltimore shareholders to vote on whether to sack the board descended into farce yesterday after a series of delays and last-minute changes in voting strategy by a dissident investor.
The results will now not be known until today.
Acquisitor Holdings, an offshore investment company that is Baltimore's biggest shareholder, called for the vote after the board revealed plans to relaunch the company - once a £5 billion (€7.37 billion) dotcom giant but now a £25 million cash shell - as a supplier of clean energy.
Acquisitor, which has so far failed to reveal its intentions, described the plans as "outrageous" at the acrimonious four-hour meeting.
Baltimore is owned predominantly by 45,000 private investors, 10,000 of them Irish and most holding fewer than 500 shares. Many expressed their anger yesterday.
Mr Harold Wolfe, one shareholder, had "no faith" in the clean energy plan but said it was "crazy" that Acquisitor had no strategy of its own.
Mr Duncan Soukup, Acquisitor deputy chairman, accused the board of "not really knowing what the clean energy business is".
He also criticised the £310,000 pay-off for Mr Bijan Khezri, who is stepping down as chief executive to become chairman.
He said Mr Khezri had been on the board of Baltimore when it unanimously approved the disastrous £514 million acquisition of Content Technologies, which was sold for £20 million just 16 months later.
Acquisitor had proposed to replace the board with its own candidates, including Mr Soukup as chief executive, but was blocked because of an administrative error.
However, this meant yesterday's vote could have left Baltimore with no acting directors, which could lead to an automatic suspension of its shares under British rules.
An Acquisitor representative said this was not in the interest of anyone, and it is understood the investment group - which owns 16 per cent of Baltimore - altered its voting to seek to return at least one non-executive director.
It is hoping that, if it wins the vote, any non-executive could be encouraged to appoint Acquisitor's own executives to the board.
Mr David Weaver, a former managing director of BP Gas, Powers and Renewables, was recently appointed chief executive of Baltimore.
Baltimore Technologies was formerly based in Dublin under the management of the current chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, Mr Fran Rooney.
During the technology bubble in mid-2000, the security software firm became one of the biggest Irish public companies, winning entry to the FTSE 100.
The firm's share price subsequently collapsed as technology firms went out of favour with investors and fears grew about its ability to cover its losses.
- (Financial Times Service)
