Dow Chemical Buries The Hatchet With Dan Loeb & Third Point

Dow Chemical Co DOW shares gained 3 percent in early trading Friday on news the company has cut a deal with dissident shareholder Third Point LLC.

Dow said it will add four new directors endorsed by Third Point, bringing the total size of the company's board to 13 members.

The move averts a possible proxy battle proposed last week by Third Point, a hedge fund operated by activist investor Daniel Loeb.

Loeb has been critical of Dow's management since at least May. Last week Loeb launched a website lambasting Dow managers for what it called "broken promises.

The website is now offline.

Dow's new board members will include Raymond Milchovich and Robert S. Miller, both reportedly rejected by Dow earlier this month.

Miller and Milchovich will each receive $500,000 in Dow shares from Third Point and additional cash payments from Third Point based on any gains in Dow's share price following three years and five years of their service on Dow's board.

Third Point's agreement with the pair were disclosed in a filing earlier this month.

Milchovich is lead director of Nucor and former chief executive of Foster Wheeler AG, while Miller was recently chief executive at Hawker Beechcraft Inc.

Whether those agreements had been rescinded or if Third Point has similar agreements with the two other board members named Friday wasn't immediately clear.

The other directors are Richard Davis, chairman, president and CEO of U.S. Bancorp and Mark Loughridge, former chief financial officer of IBM.

Loughridge, Milchovich and Miller will join the board January 1; Davis will join in May 2015 following the 2015 annual shareholders' meeting.