Showdown at Sovereign

"Ultimately, it really comes down to Relational vs. Santander," says Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors and the fund manager to Burnham Financial Services, which owns shares of Sovereign. "Santander is obviously going to support Jay ... [but] at some point in time they'd either like to own the company or they would like to realize a gain on their investment."

On Friday, Santander said it would name a third member to Sovereign's board, Gonzalo de las Heras, an executive vice president of the Spanish banking company, bringing the board total to 13 -- making this a very close race between the dissenters and executive management.

Still, other say Santander's backing of Sidhu could be waning. One source familiar with the situation says that Santander is not "in the business of protecting CEOs."

Sovereign, Relational and Franklin all declined to comment.