Activist ATG Capital Slashes Slate to 4 Nominees, Endorses 5 Incumbents in Final Proxy Push
EMPD sits 33% above its 52-week low of $2.484 on light trading volume (0.2× avg).
Summary
Activist ATG Capital filed its definitive proxy statement, reducing its director slate from nine to four nominees and endorsing five incumbent directors, while urging stockholders to vote against the 2025 Stock Plan Proposal.
Key Events · Corporate Governance and Compliance · EMPD
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ATG Reduces Slate to 4 Nominees
ATG Capital withdrew five of its nine original nominees on September 4, 2026, now seeking election of only James C. Elbaor, Gabriel D. Gliksberg, Meredith S. Kirshenbaum, and Aaron T. Morris at the October 14 annual meeting.
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Endorses 5 Unopposed Incumbents
ATG is now soliciting proxies for five Company nominees it does not oppose — John Kim, Matthew Homer, Jonathan Foster, Adrian Solgaard, and E. Taylor Robertson — while opposing Ryan Lane, Ian Read, Orn Olason, and Rohan Chauhan.
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Votes Against 2025 Stock Plan
ATG will vote against Proposal 2, which would approve the 2025 Equity Incentive Plan and 6,846,589 shares for issuance, stating the current leadership team should not be rewarded with exercisable stock options given the Company's underperformance.
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Proxy Contest Costs Reach $9.15M
ATG estimates total proxy solicitation expenses at $9.15 million, with approximately $8.15 million incurred through September 4, 2026, and intends to seek reimbursement from the Company if successful.
Analysis · EMPD · Crypto Assets
ATG Capital's definitive proxy statement marks a strategic retreat from its original nine-nominee slate to just four nominees, while endorsing five incumbent directors it previously opposed. This is a material shift in the proxy contest: ATG is now seeking a minority board presence rather than full control, likely reflecting a pragmatic assessment of vote-counting realities ahead of the October 14 annual meeting. The filing also reveals ATG will vote against the 2025 Stock Plan Proposal — which would unlock 6,846,589 shares for issuance and make previously granted options exercisable — and discloses $9.15 million in total proxy costs. The Delaware court's August 28 ruling that the board breached fiduciary duties by rejecting ATG's nominations remains the central governance flashpoint, but this filing's reduced slate and explicit voting recommendations on all three proposals give stockholders a clearer picture of the final board composition ATG is actually seeking.
How filings like this one have moved
In the 30 days to Sep 11, 2026, 35.7% of the 1694 measured filings Wiseek scored 8 moved their stock by 5% or more by the next session's close. The median move was -0.10%. These are measured outcomes after filings of this importance, not a forecast for this one.
Measured one observation per ticker per day, after exclusions. Current figures: Filing Impact Tracker · open dataset
At the time of this filing, EMPD was trading at $3.32 on NASDAQ in the Crypto Assets sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $93.2M. The 52-week trading range was $2.48 to $8.17. This filing was assessed with neutral market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10.