Some business leaders are urging Congress, too, to consider legislation that would either tilt securities laws further toward incumbent managers or use the tax code to penalize mergers.

Beyond providing watchful eyes on auditing and compensation committees, their very distance from the quotidian concerns of incumbent managers might make them valuable sparks to corporate creativity.

Whether the incumbent managers like or dislike the offer made by a bidder is only one side of the story.

Fewer of those mergers, designed to build diversified conglomerates, were 'hostile' in the sense that they went over the heads of incumbent managers.

His other brother, Winston Garcia, is the incumbent manager of the Government Service Insurance System (Philippines).

He replaced a popular incumbent manager, Dave Bristol, with a then-unproven but a future Hall-of-Fame skipper in Anderson.

Matt Millen, the team's incumbent general manager and CEO since 2001, was terminated on September 28, 2008.

Breakdowns in communication and lethargic approaches were obstacles the incumbent managers in all three situations could not overcome, leaving them to their successors.

Finally, incumbent managers have a lot of insider information about the true state of the firm, information that is not available to either existing shareholders or potential raiders.

Holders will choose between two slates, one favoring the incumbent managers and one backed by the company's largest shareholder.