CA under attack by Texas billionaire, again

Computerworld - One of embattled Computer Associates International Inc.'s biggest critics has launched yet another salvo at the business software company, urging shareholders to remove two top executives and the board chairman.

Ranger Governance Ltd., the financial firm that months ago led an unsuccessful proxy fight for control of CA, released a letter urging shareholders to oust CA President Sanjay Kumar, Chairman Charles Wang and Chief Financial Officer Ira Zar. Dallas-based Ranger is headed by billionaire Sam Wyly, one of CA's most vocal critics. Wyly sold his software firm, Sterling Software Inc., to CA in March 2000.

This latest attack comes weeks after Islandia, N.Y.-based CA was hit with a downgrade of its credit rating by Moody's Investor Service (see story) and preliminary investigations from the U.S. attorney's office and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (see story) over its controversial accounting procedures.

"Since the time of our proxy solicitation last summer, CA made some promises that they would make some changes," said Ranger spokesman Steve Perkins. "It was our expectation, frankly, that CA would be growing and improving in value, and on both those counts, things have not happened."

He said the stock had hit an "all-time low" and that the company is now under intense scrutiny over its accounting procedures. "We're asking that [shareholders] remove the chairman and the CEO and CFO as independent directors and look objectively at the performance of the company and take action accordingly," Perkins said.

Ultimately, CA's poor performance is going to hurt its customers, he claimed. "If it's not a growing company and can't reflect that in gaining new customers and selling new products to existing customers, that is going to affect the customer," said Perkins. "There are a number of customers that expect more of CA and deserve more than they're getting." He said he could quote CA's own surveys that indicate that CIOs aren't satisfied with the current management's performance.

But CA sees things differently. In a statement, the company said: "We regret that Messrs. Perkins and Wyly appear once again to be trying to call CA into question as a way of pursuing a personal vendetta. ... While we recognize that the company -- like many others -- has faced some unusual challenges in this current environment, we believe Mr. Perkins' letter is misleading, self-serving and inaccurate."

The company defended its accounting procedures and said they were "considered transparent by accounting experts." Moreover, CA is growing and gaining new customers, and customer satisfaction levels are improving, the company claimed. CA will