About five months after a proxy battle that ousted its management and revamped its board of directors, home shopping giant ValueVision Media has changed its name to Evine Live, in an effort to better reflect its transformation into a comprehensive digital commerce company.

ValueVision made the announcement in conjunction with releasing with its third quarter earnings results on Nov. 18. As part of the transition, the company changed its trading symbol on the NASDAQ Exchange from VVTV to EVLV on Nov. 20.

The company said the name change is part of the ongoing effort to transform Evine Live into a true digital commerce company.

After years of sluggish performance, ValueVision Media emerged in June from a proxy fight that saw it jettison its top management and most of its board in favor of a slate of directors with varied and vast experience in retail, television production and cable. CEO Mark Bozek, a 20-year veteran of the home-shopping wars — he started as an executive at QVC in 1994 — and a former CEO of HSN, joined a slate of high-profile directors put forth by activist investor The Clinton Group to shake up the company.  

According to a company statement, the "Es" that bookend the Evine Live brand represent the ease, exclusivity and energy of what it calls a new entertaining consumer experience. The inclusion of the word "Live" is about real-time impulses to act and interact on all digital platforms.

ValueVision acquired the Evine brand as part of a $1 million stock deal to acquire Dollars Per Minute, a Huntington, N.Y. based merchandising and entertainment company created by Bozek and Russell Nuce. Evine said it has named Nuce as its new chief strategy officer.

According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Nuce will receive annual compensation of about $375,000, a signing bonus of $75,000 and a one-time bonus of $176,000. Bozek receives total annual compensation of about $1.3 million.

As part of the Dollars Per Minute transaction, former ValueVision independent board member Thom Beers, CEO of FremantleMedia North America, received stock worth $532,867 as payment for certain convertible bridge notes he held in the company.

“As a result of the consummation of the transaction, the company’s board of directors has determined that Mr. Beers will no longer serve as an independent director,” Evine said in an SEC filing, “…and at this time, will no longer be a member of the company’s corporate governance and nominating committee.”

The rebranding is in line with what The Clinton Group had promised during their fight for control of ValueVision -- transforming what has been a distant third in the homme shopping wars (behnd QVC Group and HSN) into a modern, streamlined and nimble competitor.

"On the heels of a solid third quarter, we strongly believe definitive change and innovation are necessary to build on our recent momentum and drive the company to the next level," Bozek said in a statement. "We believe that fully embracing this new transformation will enable Evine Live to forge new paths and new relationships that allow us to be far more competitive, far more creative, and far more disruptive on all our platforms. Evine Live has the opportunity to be fearless in our strategies to transform the worlds of retail and entertainment while, at the same time, driving greater consumer engagement."

The company expects to transition from doing business as "ShopHQ" to "Evine Live" over the coming months, with the complete rebranding planned to take place first half of 2015. In the coming months, the company intends to introduce new proprietary brands from the worlds of fashion, beauty, jewelry, home and fitness.

"The new approach should enable us to build a stronger foundation for long-term growth," Bozek added in a statement.

A top investor in Shop HQ parent ValueVision Media who once criticized its former management for sticking shareholders with the bill of fighting off a proxy battle with activist investors, has soundly backed the company’s new ownership and management team, stating in a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he is switching his funds investment position in the company from “active” to “passive.”

In a brief letter to ShopHQ CEO Mark Bozek, Cannell Capital managing member J. Carlo Cannell wrote that his hedge fund “no longer seeks to effect positive change in the change in the control of ValueVision Media, Inc.("VVTV"). We are content and confident that you have this sacred duty in hand.”

Cannell Capital owns about 3 million ValueVision shares, or about 5.6% of its outstanding stock. The letter was part of a quarterly 13-G filing with the SEC Cannell made on Oct. 14. Owners of 5% or more of a public company‘s shares are required by the SEC to file 13-G statements each quarter.

While 13-Gs are usually dry and to the point, Cannell has used them as a forum on occasion. In June, he criticized ValueVision’s then-CEO Randy Ronning for sticking shareholders with a $3 million bill for public relations and legal advisors to defend the company from a proxy battle being waged by dissident investor Clinton Group.

Clinton won that fight – it ended up electing a majority of the board of directors, ousting ValueVision’s management and installing new executives including Bozek, the former CEO of shopping network rival HSN, Inc.

“Since arriving about four months ago you have pruned the executive suite, driving away those to whom the very notion of a five day work was apparently abhorrent,” Cannel wrote. “You have let in air, light and a general feeling of relevance to all employees. You have given customers a taste of what should, and can, happen with the success of the Mark Cuban American Dream show (the debut of which set a ShopHQ viewership record). Perhaps most importantly, you have reactivated relationships with merchants. Good start. Good luck. Godspeed.”

With the ink barely dry on the shareholder vote regarding its new slate of directors, ValueVision Media, parent of ShopHQ, has named Mark Bozek as CEO, replacing Keith Stewart, who had served in that role since 2009.

ValueVision had been under pressure from activist shareholder the Clinton Group since November to oust Stewart and set the home shopping channel on a new course. That came to a head at ValueVision’s annual shareholders’ meeting June 18, when four of Clinton Group’s proposed six nominees for the board were voted in – FreemantleMedia North America CEO Thom Beers, Bozek, former HSN chief operating officer Bob Rosenblatt and former QVC senior vice president of marketing Fred Siegel. Rosenblatt was also named non-executive chairman of ValueVision. A fifth Clinton nominee – former Saks Fifth Avenue President Ronald Frasch, was appointed as a director following Stewart’s resignation.

ValueVision said independent inspector of elections IVS Associates had certified the voting results at the June 18 meeting. Joining the Clinton Group nominees are former Time Warner Cable COO Landel Hobbs, former MIVA chief financial officer Lowell Robinson and Medica non-executive chairman John Buck.

Bozek has more than 20 years of senior executive experience in the multi-channel commerce, electronic retailing and entertainment industries, including having served as CEO of HSN, Inc., senior vice president of QVC, Inc., and as a producer at Fox Television.

"I am thrilled to join the team at ShopHQ and humbled by the opportunity to work with a talented Board and dedicated employees,” Bozek said in a statement. “ValueVision has great assets and our vision of all that comes next is ambitious; we plan to evolve the business, creating more robust platforms that enable us to become a far more relevant player in the multi-channel worlds of TV, online and mobile commerce and entertainment.”

Clinton Group had big plans for ShopHQ – as part of its proposal it had planned to shift the shopping channel’s product mix to include celebrity-based proprietary fare and to establish a merchandising presence in New York City. 

In his statement, Bozek cited ShopHQ’s tremendous potential, adding that he will “work tirelessly in the coming months to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for growth -- one that includes employees, our loyal customers, as well as our valued product and brand creators -- enabling ValueVision to create long-term shareholder value.”

In securing a majority of board seats, Clinton Group has eliminated any initial doubts that its agenda will be implemented.   In addition to Stewart’s resignation, chairman of the board Randy Ronning and former directors Specific Media/MySpace EVP Jill Botway, former EVP of software company Witness Systems William Evans, and former Maxum Petroleum CFO Sean Orr did not receive sufficient shareholder votes for re-election.

In his statement, Buck thanked the former directors for their contributions to ValueVision. “We wish them all good things in their future endeavors,” he said.

ShopHQ parent ValueVision Media may have reached a stalemate with activist shareholder Clinton Group, losing four of eight board seats at its annual shareholders’ meeting Wednesday and casting a further cloud on the future of the company.

Clinton Group has pressed for big changes at the ShopHQ parent – it had proposed six new members to ValueVision’s eight-member board, including Freemantle Media North America CEO Thomas Beers, ousting current CEO Keith Stewart and proposing the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company revamp its product mix and open an office in New York City.

In a statement Wednesday Clinton Group said “once the election results are certified, six of the eight directors of ValueVision will have joined the Board in 2014.”  That would presumably mean that Clinton Group’s full slate of six directors made the cut. But one person familiar with the vote said that two of ValueVision’s current directors – former COO of online advertising company MIVA Inc., Lowell Robinson and former Time Warner Cable COO Landel Hobbs, were appointed in 2014.

“It sounds like Clinton’s six nominees were elected, but that is not the case,” said one member of the investment community familiar with both companies.

The final results will not be certified until sometime next week, the person said.

Clinton Group president Gregory Taxin could not be reached for comment, but in a statement he said that the election result “are a clear message from shareholders that ValueVision needs to chart a different course, under new leadership. We are confident that there will be a solid, cohesive majority on the board to implement the changes to strategy and management shareholders have demanded.”

But with just four board seats, just how much change the activist investor can muster is still up in the air. In a statement, Value Vision said it expects to announce the election results in “the next few business days.”

“ValueVision has a proven track record of returning the company to growth and success, the right strategy to continue driving shareholder value, and a team of over 1,000 employees and hosts who are passionate about the company and the 1.4 million customers they serve,” ValueVision continued. The ValueVision board remains closely aligned with the interests of shareholders and remains focused on delivering continued success and value creation.”

ValueVison shares were up 7% (33 cents) to $5.01 per share on June 18.