4 ms·

This is a stockholder recommendation and the Board of Directors is recommending [1] that stockholders vote against it, so it's likely dead in the water. The hea

by jbeales 10y ago

This is a stockholder recommendation and the Board of Directors is recommending [1] that stockholders vote against it, so it's likely dead in the water. The headline "to discuss" is a probably overstating what will actually happen. A similar situation has happened the last couple of years with Apple, where there's a shareholder proposal for greater diversity[2], and it gets clobbered at the meeting. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312517116229/d319969ddef14a.htm#toc319969_1 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312517... [2]http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-diversity-shareholder-proposal-2017-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-diversity-shareholder-p...

anigbrowl 10y ago
Well nothing is going to change until people start telling boards of directors to go fuck themselves. Nominally BoDs are fiduciaries but frankly that doesn't mean much these days, and directors have every incentive to preserve the status quo rather than engage in any kind of innovation as regards corporate structure. In this the BoD has no more privileged insight than any of the shareholders and should be ignored. There's no guarantee it will make Twitter profitable but there's the potential to enrich the public without the shareholders being measurably worse off.
- harryh 10y ago
  there's the potential to enrich the public without the shareholders being measurably worse off Right now the shareholders collectively own something worth 10 billion dollars. That's quite a bit of money. Giving it away to the users would make them measurably worse off.
  - rch 10y ago
    It's not given away, it's purchased. The shareholders just need to agree to equitable terms. New Belgium was advised by Eureka Capital Markets, a middle market investment-banking firm: http://www.newbelgium.com/community/Blog/new-belgium-brewing/2013/01/16/We-are-100-Employee-Owned http://www.newbelgium.com/community/Blog/new-belgium-brewing...
    - bdonlan 10y ago
      Purchased by who? With what money? There's no way they'll get twitter users, collectively, to pay enough to buy out the existing investors.
      - la_oveja 10y ago
        >There's no way they'll get twitter users, collectively, to pay enough to buy out the existing investors. You must be new on the internet.
      - jondubois 10y ago
        They mean big Twitter users like news organizations and the like who have a vested interest in Twitter.
- moneytalks 10y ago
  Not sure how anyone running around swearing at people is going to accomplish a damn thing. In fact it probably siphons off the energy from a movement that needs to learn not to create value in an institution driven by profit instead of societal betterment. The proposal also suffers from the delusion of many who believe tweeting is equivalent to actually working to make the world a better place. Tweeting is more like self-congratulatory marketing that has the addictive property of also assuaging one's guilt for treating others poorly in real life.
  - cabalamat 10y ago
    > In fact it probably siphons off the energy from a movement that needs to learn not to create value in an institution driven by profit instead of societal betterment. Indeed. Creating a twitter-like platform is not particularly difficult, and it is therefore feasible for group of people to chose to build one with a structure involving a degree of user control, and see if it flies.
    - joshkpeterson 10y ago
      Nah. Don't kid yourself. It may be "not particularly difficult" to write the code, but Twitter is way more than code. It's a cultural entity built with the labor of millions of people. You have to be exceptionally lucky to do something like Twitter and it's not something everyone can do.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  > Nominally BoDs are fiduciaries but frankly that doesn't mean much these days There is a rich corpus on this question that you are needlessly simplifying [1]. TL; DR Boards have a measurable purpose. [1] http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3287q5sk#page-11 http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3287q5sk#page-11
- largehotcoffee 10y ago
  > until people start telling boards of directors to go fuck themselves lol. Good luck in life, you're going to need it!
  - daveguy 10y ago
    > lol. Good luck in life, you're going to need it! Not really. Happens often enough there's a name for it. It's called a hostile takeover. Not that this effort will be successful, but it does happen. I don't think OP meant people literally walk into the offices of the BOD members and tell them to go fuck themselves.
- omarforgotpwd 10y ago
  What are you talking about? This proposal strikes me as completely ridiculous. If Twitter users want to own part of Twitter, they should just go buy some shares... the stock is currently trading at $14.36

by jbeales 10y ago

anigbrowl 10y ago

Well nothing is going to change until people start telling boards of directors to go fuck themselves. Nominally BoDs are fiduciaries but frankly that doesn't mean much these days, and directors have every incentive to preserve the status quo rather than engage in any kind of innovation as regards corporate structure. In this the BoD has no more privileged insight than any of the shareholders and should be ignored. There's no guarantee it will make Twitter profitable but there's the potential to enrich the public without the shareholders being measurably worse off.

harryh 10y ago
there's the potential to enrich the public without the shareholders being measurably worse off Right now the shareholders collectively own something worth 10 billion dollars. That's quite a bit of money. Giving it away to the users would make them measurably worse off.
- rch 10y ago
  It's not given away, it's purchased. The shareholders just need to agree to equitable terms. New Belgium was advised by Eureka Capital Markets, a middle market investment-banking firm: http://www.newbelgium.com/community/Blog/new-belgium-brewing/2013/01/16/We-are-100-Employee-Owned http://www.newbelgium.com/community/Blog/new-belgium-brewing...
  - bdonlan 10y ago
    Purchased by who? With what money? There's no way they'll get twitter users, collectively, to pay enough to buy out the existing investors.
    - la_oveja 10y ago
      >There's no way they'll get twitter users, collectively, to pay enough to buy out the existing investors. You must be new on the internet.
    - jondubois 10y ago
      They mean big Twitter users like news organizations and the like who have a vested interest in Twitter.
moneytalks 10y ago
Not sure how anyone running around swearing at people is going to accomplish a damn thing. In fact it probably siphons off the energy from a movement that needs to learn not to create value in an institution driven by profit instead of societal betterment. The proposal also suffers from the delusion of many who believe tweeting is equivalent to actually working to make the world a better place. Tweeting is more like self-congratulatory marketing that has the addictive property of also assuaging one's guilt for treating others poorly in real life.
- cabalamat 10y ago
  > In fact it probably siphons off the energy from a movement that needs to learn not to create value in an institution driven by profit instead of societal betterment. Indeed. Creating a twitter-like platform is not particularly difficult, and it is therefore feasible for group of people to chose to build one with a structure involving a degree of user control, and see if it flies.
  - joshkpeterson 10y ago
    Nah. Don't kid yourself. It may be "not particularly difficult" to write the code, but Twitter is way more than code. It's a cultural entity built with the labor of millions of people. You have to be exceptionally lucky to do something like Twitter and it's not something everyone can do.
JumpCrisscross 10y ago
> Nominally BoDs are fiduciaries but frankly that doesn't mean much these days There is a rich corpus on this question that you are needlessly simplifying [1]. TL; DR Boards have a measurable purpose. [1] http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3287q5sk#page-11 http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3287q5sk#page-11
largehotcoffee 10y ago
> until people start telling boards of directors to go fuck themselves lol. Good luck in life, you're going to need it!
- daveguy 10y ago
  > lol. Good luck in life, you're going to need it! Not really. Happens often enough there's a name for it. It's called a hostile takeover. Not that this effort will be successful, but it does happen. I don't think OP meant people literally walk into the offices of the BOD members and tell them to go fuck themselves.
omarforgotpwd 10y ago
What are you talking about? This proposal strikes me as completely ridiculous. If Twitter users want to own part of Twitter, they should just go buy some shares... the stock is currently trading at $14.36