Hogs and Hedges: Harley-Davidson's Wild Ride

Alright, buckle up for some motorcycle business drama! Harley-Davidson, our favorite purveyor of cool bikes and leather jackets, just had their annual shareholder showdown, and boy, was it a doozy!

So, picture this: The shareholders got together for their yearly vote and they decided to keep CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz, Presiding Director Thomas Linebarger, and long-time board member Sara Levinson in their comfy leather seats. Sounds like business as usual, right? Well, not so fast!

Enter H Partners, the hedge fund that owns a hefty 9.3% of Harley. They've been running around like they just won the Daytona, claiming their big, noisy campaign has got the board making behind-the-scenes promises and has shareholders eyeballing the company's every move.

Here's where it gets really interesting: H Partners is saying that Zeitz, Linebarger and Levinson have been having hush-hush chats with some big-time shareholders, promising to hit the road before next year's big meeting. It's like they're planning a secret road trip to ride off into the corporate sunset!

Now, Zeitz had already announced last month that he was planning to hang up his CEO helmet. But he's not vrooming off just yet - he's sticking around until they find some new hotshot to take over. He has one foot on the pedal and one on the pavement!

After all the voting drama, Linebarger came out with a statement that basically said, "Hey, we hear you, shareholders! Let's keep talking." Pretty diplomatic, right? Meanwhile, Harley's keeping mum on the exact vote count until they can dot all the i's and cross all the t's in their official paperwork.

This whole rumble kicked off back in April when Jared Dourdeville, H Partners' guy on the board, dramatically threw in the towel. He didn't just quit; he went full throttle, blasting Harley's leadership under Zeitz. We're talking accusations of poor accountability, executive musical chairs, and a corporate culture that's apparently sputtering like an old engine. He even took a swipe at their work-from-home policies - guess he's not a fan of Zoom meetings in biker leather!

Of course, Harley's not just sitting there taking it. They fired back, saying H Partners is just revving their engines because the board didn't like their pick for the new CEO. It's like a high-stakes game of "My candidate's better than your candidate!"

So there you have it - more twists and turns than a mountain road and enough corporate intrigue to fill a whole season of a business reality show. Will Harley ride off into a new era? Will H Partners get their way? And who's going to be the next big cheese in the land of choppers and hogs? Stay tuned, because this ride's far from over!

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