Livedoor Co. will hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting June 14, the first such gathering since several of its executives were arrested, and select a new board of directors including some from outside the firm, company sources said Sunday.
The struggling Internet and financial services firm is also expected to announce the dissolution of investment arms allegedly involved in accounting fraud and market manipulation in violation of the Securities and Exchange Law.
In the meeting at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture, all three Livedoor directors will step down, the sources said. They will be replaced by current President Kozo Hiramatsu and others.
Hiramatsu assumed the presidency in late January after the company's then president, Takafumi Horie, was arrested, but he did not become a board member.
The new six-member board will include Livedoor's two other executive officers and three outside directors including Usen Corp. President Yasuhide Uno, who is the second-largest shareholder in Livedoor after Horie, who founded the company.
The plan to expand the board with outside directors is intended to strengthen its compliance following the indictment of the company earlier this year for accounting fraud, sources have said.
Cable TV broadcaster Usen has established a business tieup with Livedoor.
As of the end of March, an estimated 155,000 shareholders were eligible to attend the meeting, down sharply from 220,000 at the end of September. Many shareholders sold their stake after the price plunged in the wake of the prosecutors' probe into the firm and the arrests of Horie and other former executives earlier this year.
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