According to a company spokesperson, the meeting had been set for some time and before it became the focus of a tug-of-war between Mills and Gazit-Globe. The Israeli real estate firm acquired a 9% stake in the firm in October. Last week Gazit filed a complaint against the company in a Delaware court to compel Mills to hold the meeting in a timely manner, as reported by GlobeSt.com. Gazit's motivation, the company has said, was to put its proposal, which includes $1.2 billion to recapitalized it, before the company's stockholders and give them enough time to consider the proposal.

In a SEC filing responding to the suit, Mills CEO Mark Ordan said Gazit wanted to tilt the playing field in its favor, keeping shareholders from considering other options available to the company.

Mills left open the possibility of pushing back the shareholders meeting date to the last week of December if "the company determines that it is unable to complete the process for the solicitation of proxies by Dec. 21," according to a press released issued by the company.