Sharper Image Avoids Proxy Contest

Sharper Image Corp. staved off a proxy contest at its upcoming annual stockholder meeting by agreeing to expand its board of directors.

New York-based Knightspoint Group, which owns 12.8% of the San Francisco-based cataloger/retailer, in March sent a proxy solicitation regarding replacing the company’s seven-member board of directors.

Under terms of the agreement, the Sharper Image board will increase to nine members. Sharper Image will nominate three current board members, including founder/chairman/CEO Richard Thalheimer, who’s also the company’s largest individual stockholder.Knightspoint will nominate three members, and the remaining three are considered independent nominees.

Knightspoint’s proxy solicitation followed months of declining year-over-year sales and bottom-line erosion at Sharper Image.