tburns, I think you have the nub of the issue there....The 'fact' of the matter is that the 'institutions' or perhaps we should call them 'large shareholders' will probably feel that, as they have more shares than me or you, that they deserve more say in what happens to the company. I believe this is the way the market works and seems fair to me. Whilst I may not like it and would like each of my shares to count as 100000 of theirs - I somehow don't see it happening.
If any CEO turned around and said he/she was going to treat one shareholder differently to another I suspect there would be charges laid.
It seems there is a feeling that this is an 'us' and 'them' situation
They are bad and we are good of course
They being:
Big business people in suits (Institutions, Ryback, Regli, LSE, DB Consultants, Jones Day & 'The City')
Us being : The poor downtrodden masses, EC (?)
So 'equality unless it isn't what I want' should be the watch word/phrase!
Hey ho.