Backtracking on the Road to Corporate Reform

While the technology industry is fiercely fighting stock-options expensing, groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have become increasingly vocal in the reform debate, vehemently opposing the proxy-access rules.

Many business groups supported the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other reforms, but some are now raising concerns about the costs and time involved in complying with those rules.

"Does [the reform movement] have the momentum that it had? No," said Lynn Turner, the head of research at proxy adviser Glass Lewis and a former chief accountant of the SEC. "We've probably seen as much of a gain as is going to occur. Now the question becomes how much of that gain sticks."

Big Business Gets Big Mo

The change in momentum follows two years of rapid regulatory and governance changes, most notably the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which created a new federal agency to oversee accounting and increased companies' disclosure requirements. In addition, the stock exchanges enacted new listing standards, increasing the portion of company directors that had to be independent while the SEC passed new rules, which soon will require mutual funds to disclose their proxy votes and corporate insiders to file electronic reports of their stock sales.

But the movement went beyond new rules and regulations, as criminal charges were filed against accused white-collar criminals such as Martha Stewart, former Tyco (TYC Quote) chief Dennis Koslowski and members of the Rigas family -- founders of Adelphia Communications. Meanwhile, investors stepped up their scrutiny, pushing through record numbers of shareholder proposals and campaigns to withhold votes from directors.