4 ms·

The very similar prices of GOOG vs GOOGL kind of contradicts your assertion that the voting rights of shares are particularly valuable.

by harryh 10y ago

rubyn00bie 10y ago
Well... my apologies for not emphasizing more that it's my feeling of value. Not necessarily the market's... as you're right, by and large the market doesn't care. But their darlings are still performing well. I think a lot of investors are largely ignorant of the voting fact and I also think, most don't get involved until things go badly; so, we'll see how the long term plays out to really know.
euyyn 10y ago
OTOH, Larry and Sergey already controlled more than 50% of the votes before the split.
- harryh 10y ago
  That's a very good point. I wonder if there are any other companies with stock structures similar to Google but without all powerful founders that would provide more data on this question? I don't know of any off the top of my head but my knowledge in this area isn't particularly strong.
  - terravion 10y ago
    The New York Times had similar structure to Google for almost a century.
    - harryh 10y ago
      But did they have 2 classes of publicly traded stock, one with voting right & one without, that could be compared? I don't think so?
      - andreareina 10y ago
        Not exactly what you're looking for, but several companies have different voting power for different classes of publicly traded stock > Many companies list dual-class shares. Ford's dual-class stock structure, for instance, allows the Ford family to control 40% of shareholder voting power with only about 4% of the total equity in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which has Warren Buffett as a majority shareholder, offers a B share with 1/30th the interest of its A-class shares, but 1/200th of the voting power. Echostar Communications demonstrates the extreme power that can be had through dual-class shares: founder and CEO Charlie Ergen has about 5% of the company's stock, but his super-voting class-A shares give him a whopping 90% of the vote. [1] [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental/04/092204.asp http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental/04/092204.a...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
ChrisjayHenn 10y ago
I seem to recall reading that GOOG pays a larger dividend to make up for the lack of voting rights though. Did I misunderstand that?
- miano 10y ago
  Google does not pay out dividends.
dmitrygr 10y ago
Probably because GOOG's voting power is negligible when compared to class B shares (not available on open market) that have 10x the voting pwoer

The very similar prices of GOOG vs GOOGL kind of contradicts your assertion that the voting rights of shares are particularly valuable.

by harryh 10y ago

The very similar prices of GOOG vs GOOGL kind of contradicts your assertion that the voting rights of shares are particularly valuable.

rubyn00bie 10y ago

Well... my apologies for not emphasizing more that it's my feeling of value. Not necessarily the market's... as you're right, by and large the market doesn't care. But their darlings are still performing well. I think a lot of investors are largely ignorant of the voting fact and I also think, most don't get involved until things go badly; so, we'll see how the long term plays out to really know.

euyyn 10y ago

OTOH, Larry and Sergey already controlled more than 50% of the votes before the split.

harryh 10y ago
That's a very good point. I wonder if there are any other companies with stock structures similar to Google but without all powerful founders that would provide more data on this question? I don't know of any off the top of my head but my knowledge in this area isn't particularly strong.
- terravion 10y ago
  The New York Times had similar structure to Google for almost a century.
  - harryh 10y ago
    But did they have 2 classes of publicly traded stock, one with voting right & one without, that could be compared? I don't think so?
    - andreareina 10y ago
      Not exactly what you're looking for, but several companies have different voting power for different classes of publicly traded stock > Many companies list dual-class shares. Ford's dual-class stock structure, for instance, allows the Ford family to control 40% of shareholder voting power with only about 4% of the total equity in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which has Warren Buffett as a majority shareholder, offers a B share with 1/30th the interest of its A-class shares, but 1/200th of the voting power. Echostar Communications demonstrates the extreme power that can be had through dual-class shares: founder and CEO Charlie Ergen has about 5% of the company's stock, but his super-voting class-A shares give him a whopping 90% of the vote. [1] [1]: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental/04/092204.asp http://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental/04/092204.a...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

ChrisjayHenn 10y ago

I seem to recall reading that GOOG pays a larger dividend to make up for the lack of voting rights though. Did I misunderstand that?

miano 10y ago
Google does not pay out dividends.

dmitrygr 10y ago

Probably because GOOG's voting power is negligible when compared to class B shares (not available on open market) that have 10x the voting pwoer