Nestlé Nestlé’s crunch

Things have come to a pretty pass when a company is forced to deny that its board is threatening to resign en masse if rebel shareholders stymie its plans for a new chairman. But that is precisely what has happened at Nestle, the Swiss food group. The company wants its chief executive Peter Brabeck to become chairman as well when septuagenarian Rainer Gut gives up the chair. But some shareholders think that would concentrate too much power in Brabeck’s hands. Shareholders don’t get to elect Nes...