To mitigate the impact of COVID-19, companies are conducting their annual meetings virtually at a particular website.

In fact, Berkshire Hathaway, which has more than 40,000 investors, decided to cancel the annual meeting to avoid crowd gathering. Instead, the meeting will be live-streamed by Yahoo.

From a legal standpoint, not all companies can conduct a virtual meeting. It all depends on the state of incorporation. Even though some states do not permit virtual meetings, the State of Delaware (Section 211) permits a virtual-only meeting after the company had complied with a few regulations.

Even though Cerner Corporation is incorporated in the state of Delaware, the by-law is silent about the virtual meeting.  As such, on March 20, 2020 the company’s board of directors updated its by-law to permit the same.

Various companies, including Microsoft and Starbucks, have used the site below to host their annual meetings. https://central.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/vsm/home