Jan. 21, 2025

The Brookings-based company designs and manufactures video communication displays and control systems for customers worldwide.

It was founded in 1968 by Aelred Kurtenbach and Duane Sander, two professors at South Dakota State University, to capitalize on engineering talent graduating in South Dakota.

“We are proud of our long history in South Dakota and remain committed to maintaining our headquarters and operations in the state,” Reece Kurtenbach, chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

“As our business has grown and become more complex, we have come to recognize the importance of evolving our corporate governance structure. Delaware is the legal domicile for most large, publicly traded companies, and its corporate law is well understood, clear and predictable, and provides strong shareholder rights and protections. We believe changing our legal domicile to Delaware – without making any other structural changes to our employee base, facilities, operations or commitments to our communities – supports our ongoing business transformation plan and enables us to enhance the rights of our shareholders while continuing to benefit from the exemplary work ethic and ingenuity of our South Dakota employees.”

Reincorporation will provide an opportunity for the company to make changes to its corporate governance, it said in the statement, including a majority voting standard for uncontested director elections, proxy access and a conventional, statutory voting system for director elections – “which will ensure holders of the majority of shares are able to elect a cohesive board of directors and eliminate the risk that a minority group of shareholders can handpick a faction of directors they believe will represent their particular interests.”

More than half of Daktronics’ almost 3,000 employees work in South Dakota.

“While Daktronics’ legal jurisdiction may change, our home will not,” Kurtenbach said. “Our corporate headquarters, along with important manufacturing, engineering, sales and service facilities and the vast majority of our employees, will remain in South Dakota, where we have been for more than 50 years.”

A date for the special meeting of shareholders hasn’t been set.