He said poison pills could be useful to guard against low bids, harmful to shareholder interests. But in the PeopleSoft case, no other bids have been forthcoming after some 18 months of Oracle's pursuit to top its $24-a-share, all-cash offer. The shareholders in the tender have clearly expressed their views on whether the Oracle offer is adequate. One of the major campaigns by shareholder activists in recent proxy seasons has been to call for shareholder authorization of poison pills. This proxy season there were 52 shareholder resolutions on poison pills, down from 91 in 2003, according to Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. The resolutions, generally non-binding, called for a shareholder vote to authorize such anti-takeover devices. The drop in the proposals is a reflection of corporate action to satisfy shareholder demand. At least, 39 proposals received a majority vote. Last year, 65 received a majority vote. More than 40 corporations also redeemed their poison pills last year.