Elliott Investment sends letter to Crown Castle board providing feedback

Elliott Investment sent a letter to Crown Castle’s board summarizing the feedback received since publicly sharing its views on the company last week. As Elliott wrote in the letter, “the commentary has been consistent and highly critical of the Company and its strategy and leadership, including the apparent lack of oversight by the Board.” Elliott went on to note that in the week following the release of its materials, Crown Castle’s stock price appreciated by 14.5% and the Company outperformed its direct peers by 8.4% – the largest week of outperformance for Crown Castle in the last decade. “In effect,” the letter noted, “Jay Brown’s severe underperformance as a CEO has made the prospect of his departure his greatest moment of outperformance.” In the letter, Elliott also took aim at the Board’s continued lack of oversight and wrote, “The Board’s refusal to act in the face of such overwhelming data and robust support for change would be a failure of its most basic duty of oversight and stewardship on behalf of shareholders.” Elliott added that while it “remain(s) hopeful that we can align with the Board on a constructive path forward, it is even clearer to us today based on the feedback we have received that Crown Castle requires CEO change and a robust review of the Fiber business.” Elliott concluded the letter by stating that if the Crown Castle Board is unwilling to make necessary leadership changes, Elliott will nominate a new Board that will. Based on the shareholder feedback it has received, Elliott, the letter said, is “confident that shareholders will choose a Board with a greater commitment to shareholder stewardship and best-in-class governance.”