Annual Goat Rodeos

It’s annual meeting season, a time for disgruntled shareholders to confront management face-to-face and let ‘em have it. Yesterday, Citigroup, Smith Barney’s parent, held an apparently long, long, long meeting in an effort to allow shareholders to speak their minds. Indeed, CEO Charles Prince patiently let so many speak that one shareholder in attendance likened the meeting, held at Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan, to a “goat rodeo with individual shareholders run amok.” (Today’s New York Times, registration required.)