Barnes & Noble director says shareholders could trigger takeover defense jby voting against it

Barnes & Noble director defends poison pill

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Barnes & Noble director says shareholders who don’t like the company’s poison pill could trigger it simply by agreeing to vote against it.

The company is defending the shareholder rights plan it adopted last year after billionaire Ron Burkle doubled his stake in the bookseller.

Burkle challenges the anti-takeover maneuver in a suit being heard in Delaware Chancery Court.

Company officials have testified that the terms of the poison pill are reasonable, and that shareholders will be given the chance to vote on it by mid-November.

But board member Michael Del Giudice (JOO-diss) testified Tuesday that if investors holding more than 20 percent of the book seller’s shares agree to vote against the poison pill, that itself would trigger the pill.