Bank of America shareholders dismiss Kenneth Lewis from position as Chairman

You don't see this every day...

Bank of America Corp. said shareholders voted to split the duties of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis after investors criticized management’s handling of the Merrill Lynch & Co. takeover.

Walter E. Massey was named the new chairman, while Lewis will be president and CEO, according to a statement, which expressed "unanimous support" for Lewis to continue. The shareholder resolution was approved at today’s annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bank of America is based. All 18 directors were re-elected by a “comfortable margin,” spokesman James Mahoney said earlier today.

Wow. Bank of America shareholders just effectively fired Kenneth Lewis as Chairman of the company. He's still the CEO, but he's lost power as a result of this vote. Maybe he'll go the way of Michael Eisner and leave the company soon.

The meeting lasted some four hours long and featured a slew of worthy resolutions from concerned and disgusted shareholders seeking to reform the company's business practices. The response to most of them was a cavalier sentence delivered by Lewis: "The board recommends a vote against this proposal."

Typical corporate arrogance. We know better than you because we run this company. Yeah... into the ground!

You can read all about the proceedings over at SEIU's site - they did a fantastic job liveblogging the shareholder meeting.