In something of a face-saving victory, Icahn did manage to put one of his three candidates on Transocean’s board. Sam Merksamer will replace board chairman Michael Talbert who had said he would resign from the board even if re-elected. He won’t have to write that resignation letter now.

Transocean’s CEO told The Wall Street Journal that the company “welcomes” Merksamer to the board and that there won’t be any issues with seating the new board member.

At its annual meeting yesterday shareholders did approve a smaller dividend payment of $2.24 a share that had been proposed by Transocean’s management and supported by to institutional investors’ advisory firms. The dividend will be paid in 4 quarterly installments of $0.56 a share beginning in June.

Shares of Transocean are trading down 1.8% at $53.76 in a 52-week range of $39.32 to $59.50.

The company has appointed the former CEO of BP PLC (NYSE: BP), Tony Hayward, as its interim chairman. Hayward is the senior independent director and deputy chairman of Glencore Xstrata.

Bond, who is 70 years old, had already said he would step down as chairman after a search for a new chairman had been completed. Shareholders did not want to wait that long apparently.

Shareholders rejected the original terms of the merger agreement between Glencore and Xstrata, which Bond had negotiated. They were especially unhappy with the generous retention packages being recommended for Xstrata executives. Bond’s decision to step down came following that rejection.

A second director, Steve Robson, was also rejected by shareholders in a proxy vote, and he resigned before today’s annual meeting.

Hayward presided over BP at the time of the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, which claimed the lives of 11 workers and dumped millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. Hayward took a lot of heat for the seemingly cavalier manner in which he responded to the disaster, and he resigned under pressure in July 2010. He is currently the CEO of a small oil company with operations in Kurdistan.

The New York Times reported on the lack of shareholder access:

Now, in the midst of one of the most closely watched investor votes in years — over whether to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive at JPMorgan Chase — that protocol has changed. The firm that is providing tabulations of the JPMorgan vote stopped giving voting snapshots to the proposal’s sponsors last week. The change followed a request from Wall Street’s main lobby group, the firm says.

The pension fund shareholders that are promoting a split at the top of the bank are crying foul. Knowing the current tally is critical for both sides in shaping their campaigns, they say — cutting off access to them gives JPMorgan, which is getting frequent updates, an upper hand.

“They have changed the rules in the middle of the game and it has created an unfair advantage,” said Michael Garland, assistant comptroller who heads corporate governance for the New York City comptroller John Liu. “It’s like playing a game where only the home team gets to know the score.”

Southwest Airlines announced Wednesday morning that its board of directors has quadrupled its quarterly dividend payment to $0.04 per share from $0.01 per share. The increase is for shareholders of record at the close of business on June 5, 2013, and will be paid on June 26, 2013.

Another boost is coming from the buyback plan. The existing $1 billion share repurchase program is being expanded to $1.5 billion. On top of that, an initial $250 million in its common stock will be repurchased under an accelerated stock repurchase program.

The new dividend will amount to a yield of 1.1%, based on the $13.98 close on Tuesday. Shares currently are trading higher by almost 3% at $14.39. That $1.5 billion share buyback compares to a market cap of $10.41.

As we have said before, United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is the main dividend sinner in the sector. The airline is considered the healthiest legacy carrier now that United and Continental have amalgamated into one company, and its market cap is $11.6 billion now that shares have rallied a whopping 70% in the past six months.

Windows 8 may not have hit its download target, but sales have moved above 100 million. By releasing updated versions of the software to address concerns, Ballmer has gotten in front of the problem, although it is one many people believe should never have existed.

Windows 8 was released into a world in which PC sales rates have gone into reverse. Critics argue that Windows could have pulled PC sales higher. On the other hand, consumer migration to tablets and smartphones almost certainly would have happened no matter what Microsoft did. The remaining criticism is that Microsoft has left the mobile OS business to Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS. However, Android does not make any money, so its value to Google cannot be assessed yet.

Ballmer has managed to effectively guard Microsoft’s two other long-term franchises. Each has a large number of competitors anxious to get a portion of markets that Microsoft has proved are highly profitable. In Microsoft’s fiscal third quarter:

The Microsoft Business Division posted $6.32 billion of revenue, an 8% increase from the prior year period. Adjusting for the net recognition of revenue related to the Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-Sales, Microsoft Business Division non-GAAP revenue increased 5%. During the quarter, we launched the new Office, enhancing productivity and the user experience through new mobility, social, and cloud features.

The Server & Tools business reported $5.04 billion of revenue, an 11% increase from the prior year period, driven by double-digit percentage revenue growth in SQL Server and System Center.

Ballmer has been blamed for keeping the company in the online portal and search businesses. But it cannot afford to hand this business to Google. Its venture with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a market share in the United States of more than 30%, a number many analysts believed was beyond its reach. Search remains strategically critical, if for nothing else as a tool to help online adoption of Windows mobile. This part of Microsoft did better than expected recently:

The Online Services Division reported revenue of $832 million, an 18% increase from the prior year period. Online advertising revenue grew 22% driven by an increase in revenue per search.

Many other companies are struggling with declines in online revenue.

The final defense of Ballmer’s recent tenure as CEO of Microsoft is the most compelling one. Its share price is up 35% over the past two years, while the Nasdaq is higher by 25%. And Microsoft shares have a 2.8% yield. That helps make the case for Ballmer stronger than the one against him.

On Monday night came news that Verizon Wireless would pay out $7 billion in a dividend to co-owners Verizon and Vodafone. Verizon Communications owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, so it will receive $3.85 billion. Vodafone owns 45%, and it is set to receive $3.15 billion. Both payments will be made toward the end of June.

There are two takes here. One is that the move is by Verizon Communications to force a position for a buyout of Verizon Wireless. The other is that the move is meant to appease Vodafone and to keep from having to cough up tens of billions of dollars that would require a huge debt or equity offering to finance the deal.

Our view is that the dividend is move intended to kick the can down the road on any major M&A transaction. Verizon already greatly underyields rival AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) on its dividend, at 3.9% versus 4.8%. This move may allow Verizon to catch its dividend back up and perhaps deal with the Vodafone stake in Verizon Wireless in pieces, or at least further out on the calendar.

Brokerage firm CLSA has a report out from Mike Mayo after it surveyed shareholders of J.P. Morgan Chase showing that large holders would likely sell their shares of the largest bank by assets. It was put as high as a 10% price drop, valued at some $20 billion, if Dimon leaves and those shareholders hit the ejection button.

Mayo talked about a leadership vacuum at Chase and no clear successor. What is interesting is that Mike Mayo has had public anti-Dimon posturing for some time and the firm has an Underperform rating on shares of J.P. Morgan Chase. We would note that men such as Ken Langone and Warren Buffett have been vocal supporters of Jamie Dimon.

Dimon’s controversy has been in the aftermath of the London Whale losses and this is the key reason we have Wells Fargo & Com. (NYSE: WFC) ahead of J.P. Morgan on America’s 7 Safest Large Banks. That being said, 24/7 Wall St. thinks that investors would flock heavily into the next bank stock that Jamie Dimon went to if he left.

The incident should result in the dismissal of long-time Bloomberg editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler. In response to the scandal, he wrote, “Our reporters should not have access to any data considered proprietary. I am sorry they did. The error is inexcusable.” That set of errors happened on his watch.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are investigating the practice. It is entirely possible that Bloomberg reporters collected sensitive data illegally, which would undermine the reputation of Bloomberg reporters among its terminal customers and financial media consumers in general.

This is an interesting take because it has yet another call to increase the capitalization of the so-called too big to fail banks. It sound great and 24/7 Wall St. is all in favor of big banks being on solid ground. The ultimate problem is that the big banks are so big that increase their capitalization requirements effectively withdraws too much capital from the economy.  It is without any doubt that you have heard of the calls to break apart the big banks before. You will here those same calls tomorrow and beyond as well.

When you consider that a mere handful of banks have about half of the country’s personal and commercial bank deposits you have a right to be scared. Increasing the capital requirements above the 10% hurdles set by Basel banking standards. Imagine how strong and able these banks would be able to hold up in another recession if their bank capital requirements went from 10% to say 15%.   Now for the bad news if you look at the tally of assets as of the end of 2012. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was about $2.36 trillion in assets and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) has $2.2 trillion in assets, with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) behind it at $1.86 trillon and then followed by $1.42 trillion for Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

These four banks alone have $7.84 trillion in assets. The CIA World Factbook tracks just about all global economies and its final estimate for 2012 GDP was put at $15.66 trillion for 2012. Different regulators have many different means of calculating what they think the capitalization are best and keeping up with the flavor of the day or week is for government accountants and regulators. Still, this asset base for just the four biggest banks is right at half (actually 50.06%) of 2012 GDP on the purchasing power parity calculation preferred by economists.

It is very easy to merely say in a vacuum that the too big to fail banks should just increase their capital to hedge against future bailouts. Various regulators have various means of evaluating capitalization metrics and requirements. The unfortunate outcome is that by forcing banks to hold even more capital will tighten credit even further than it has been. With much of the world back in recession, that puts the U.S. back in recession.

Here is what Mr. Plosser said,

“Today, I will highlight why I think current efforts may not be sufficient and discuss a two-pronged approach to ending the problem of too big to fail. The first aspect of this approach is establishing a framework that permits a large financial institution to, in fact, fail without placing the financial system at risk. Large financial firms, and particularly their creditors, should not be rescued or protected by government guarantees or supports or by regulatory discretion. The second line of defense that I will discuss is to expect all financial firms to maintain sufficient levels of capital to significantly reduce the ex-ante risk of failure. Increased capital requirements can lower the incentive for financial institutions to become systemically important and lower the probability that such firms will fail in the first place.”

There is an admission that these “TBTF” banks would become less systemically important. We have no problem with the notion that 20 of the top 50 banks should be allowed to grow and take assets from the top 4. The question is how you can do it without creating a recession. No one seems to have the stomach to actually break apart these businesses. Merely lifting capital reserve requirements comes with a serious price due to the economies of scale here.

Finally, just imagine breaking all of these big banks up as the ultimate step that many people would like to see. This would be very messy and would likely throw the economy back into a self-imposed recession. At first there would be many layoffs and many immediate hits in the economy. That would likely reverse itself and perhaps in as short as one or two quarters of the year. During that period of chaos, businesses would have limited access to capital again just like in 2008 and 2009 at the same time that individuals would not be able to easily get mortgages and loans. The list of problems can just go on and on even though we agree that the big banks are just too big and too economically important.

It is easy for politicians and regulators to propose more strict and tighter standards. As you can see, the actual path to take is harder to walk down than it is to talk about. If you do not believe that there would not be real problems here, ask yourself why the moves have been so slow even after the financial crisis. Even with the anti-money sentiment that much of the public and their elected officials have today, the powers that be must also believe that the price to pay would be too costly.

Delta announced on Wednesday that it plans to create $5 billion in value for shareholders. In that plan, $1 billion will be returned to shareholders over the next three years and the airline declared a $0.06 per share common dividend as a result. Delta will also spend up to $500 million to repurchase its common stock.

Together, the dividend and buyback programs will return more than $1 billion of capital to shareholders over the next three years. The dividend yield is approximately 1.3% if you take the 3.3% gain to $18.68 on Wednesday.

Currently, Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is the only airline that pays a dividend. Its yield is very small at 0.3%, but this may pressure Southwest to seek higher payouts as well.

Delta shares are up 3.3% at $18.68 and the stock hit a new multiyear high of $18.84 today. The $0.24 annualized payout compares to $2.64 in earnings per share expected from Thomson Reuters for earnings in 2013.