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>Can’t you structure things like Zuckerberg or Palantir and just have the founder retain unilateral company control? Fyi... Zuckerberg didn't "retain" unilater
by jasode 5y ago
>Can’t you structure things like Zuckerberg or Palantir and just have the founder retain unilateral company control?
Fyi... Zuckerberg didn't "retain" unilateral control. He lost his 65% majority ownership control because it was reduced (diluted) to 40% when Peter Thiel invested in 2004.[1]
What eventually happened was that Zuckerberg later consolidated voting power from other shareholders like Sean Parker and Accel Partners.[2] Why would they give voting power to Zuckerberg?!? Because Zuckerberg was doing a good job running the company.
Yes, Facebook also later set up class B shares with 10x voting power for Zuckerberg. But investors won't accommodate founders with that structure unless the company is a big success.
So in short, MZ lost 65% control, and then eventually got majority voting power back after some business events. Even though he now only owns ~14% of Facebook, an article said his voting share was still at majority of ~58%.[3]
[1] Facebook ownership was divided between Zuckerberg, with 65%, Saverin, with 30%, and Moskovitz, with 5%. After the transaction, the new company was divided between Zuckerberg, with 40%, Saverin, with 24%, Moskovitz, with 16%, and Thiel with 9%. The rest, about 20%, went to an options pool for future employees. -- from : https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-booted-his-co-founder-out-of-the-company-2012-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-booted-h...
[2] https://venturebeat.com/2012/02/01/zuck-power-play/ https://venturebeat.com/2012/02/01/zuck-power-play/
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-26/facebook-board-rejects-proposals-to-reduce-zuckerberg-s-power https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-26/facebook-...
- repomies69 5y agoIf the company makes bucketlots of money, the board isn't going to change the CEO, even if he would be a total arse in board meetings. I think it has to be repeated that investors want returns for their investments. Also, if the company happens to make money despite of lousy CEO, the board will highly probably keep the lousy CEO. All these founder-centric stories makes it looks like board will fire the CEO just for fun, or just because they happen to get the idea out of the blue. Actually it is a lot of pain and work for the board to try to find a new (better) CEO and they probably realize that they will fail (statistically speaking). So, the board will fire the CEO only in a situation where they genuinely believe that average replacement from the market will do a better job running the company. They don't fire on a whim.