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I don't think you and I know each other, but I'm going to guess that you own shares in hundreds of companies. I'm also guessing that you have never voted at the

I don't think you and I know each other, but I'm going to guess that you own shares in hundreds of companies. I'm also guessing that you have never voted at the shareholder meeting of most or all of those companies. Again, just guessing, but I'm guessing that the same is true for most of the people who read this site. And this is YC--all about founders and funders.

thebean11 7y ago
> but I'm going to guess that you own shares in hundreds of companies If you count index funds sure > I'm also guessing that you have never voted at the shareholder meeting of most or all of those companies. I generally don't vote, but that isn't because I don't believe in the efficacy of shareholder voting. Just because MY (insignificant) vote wouldn't matter doesn't mean shareholder votes in general don't matter, or that shareholders as a whole don't have control over the company.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  Exactly, most of the votes don't matter. There may be a big shareholder whose vote does matter, but it's probably the management, look at Google and Facebook. They sold the company and kept all the ownership. "This is still true in most young companies, which need capital to get going, and in many small ones anyhow. But in most successful American concerns which have grown to maturity, and especially in the very big ones which between them do a very large proportion of American business, the stockholders are no longer in control in any real sense: they are subordinate in authority and importance to the management... ...Suppose a stockholder doesn’t like the way the corporation is being run? Only if he is eccentric, or a special sort of crusader, or a politician (union or otherwise) trying to make a stir, does he try to oppose the management of a really big company. What he does, instead, is to sell his stock and get out... ...Looking at this segment of American business, we would almost find it appropriate to call our present economic system “managementism” rather than “capitalism.”." - Frederick Lewis Allen in "The Big Change: America Transforms itself 1900 - 1950"
  - thebean11 7y ago
    Each vote matters equally but bigger shareholders get more votes. By the same token, bigger shareholders get punished more by dilution.

thebean11 7y ago

> but I'm going to guess that you own shares in hundreds of companies If you count index funds sure > I'm also guessing that you have never voted at the shareholder meeting of most or all of those companies. I generally don't vote, but that isn't because I don't believe in the efficacy of shareholder voting. Just because MY (insignificant) vote wouldn't matter doesn't mean shareholder votes in general don't matter, or that shareholders as a whole don't have control over the company.

pnutjam 7y ago
Exactly, most of the votes don't matter. There may be a big shareholder whose vote does matter, but it's probably the management, look at Google and Facebook. They sold the company and kept all the ownership. "This is still true in most young companies, which need capital to get going, and in many small ones anyhow. But in most successful American concerns which have grown to maturity, and especially in the very big ones which between them do a very large proportion of American business, the stockholders are no longer in control in any real sense: they are subordinate in authority and importance to the management... ...Suppose a stockholder doesn’t like the way the corporation is being run? Only if he is eccentric, or a special sort of crusader, or a politician (union or otherwise) trying to make a stir, does he try to oppose the management of a really big company. What he does, instead, is to sell his stock and get out... ...Looking at this segment of American business, we would almost find it appropriate to call our present economic system “managementism” rather than “capitalism.”." - Frederick Lewis Allen in "The Big Change: America Transforms itself 1900 - 1950"
- thebean11 7y ago
  Each vote matters equally but bigger shareholders get more votes. By the same token, bigger shareholders get punished more by dilution.