Ceridian Investor Ramps Up Rhetoric

Ceridian Proxy Fight: The battle for control of Ceridian Corp. is getting nasty. The latest victim: Douglas M. Neve, who resigned as CFO of the HR software maker last week. Neve reportedly left of his own accord, but his departure is the latest blow to Ceridian, whose board of directors is embroiled in a proxy fight with Pershing Square Capital Management, one of its investors. Adding fuel to the fire, Pershing boss William A. Ackman described Neve’s replacement, Gregory Macfarlane, as a "division-level finance executive" who lacks the requisite experience for the job. "We need to better understand how the company’s compensation and human resources committee concluded that this was the right hire at this time, and how the search—if any—was conducted," Ackman says. Pershing also contends that, in the midst of the proxy dispute, Ceridian’s board has been giving "rich financial terms to unproven new hires." Pershing Square recently said it plans to nominate its own slate of eight directors in upcoming board elections, after becoming concerned about a series of financial misstatements by Ceridian, alleged accounting violations and worries about internal controls.

—Garry Kranz