Short ternure for IGT director

The unpleasant and very public proxy fight for seats on the Board of International Gaming Technology earlier this year will probably be remembered by Our readers; this week there was a sequel when Daniel Silvers – the only Ader Investments representative to actually take up a seat on the board – resigned after just eight months.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday, IGT said Silvers had resigned from the 10-person board, which has voted not to replace him, reduced the Board composition to nine directors.

According to IGT, Silvers’ resignation was prompted by a change in his principal occupation and business association. Silvers had been an executive with Ader Investment Management, which is controlled by Jason Ader. Ader and another firm, Cumberland Associates, formed Owl Spring Asset Management, prompting Silver to step down from IGT “…in accordance with the company’s corporate governance policy.”

After battling for board seats for several months earlier this year, the warring factions announced a truce in June in which Ader agreed to a standstill provision for four years, and IGT agreed to reimburse his $2.5 million costs incurred in the proxy fight.

Last Friday Ader also issued a statement acknowledging that IGT was “in good hands” and that the company had made “noteworthy improvements to its governance and capital allocation programs.”

The statement continued: “We are happy to have contributed to helping raise investor and shareholder awareness to historical challenges and are pleased with recent business and stock price performance. We support the current direction and leadership and expect to be shareholders for the foreseeable future.”

IGT has also announced that CEO Patti Hart’s contract has been updated, giving her better severance benefits, although her remuneration remains unchanged at $1 million a year, with annual target bonus levels equal to between 150 percent and 300 percent of her base salary.

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