Though Zuckerberg’s majority voting power is extreme such cosy arrangements became widespread during the free-money era, especially in tech, as startup investors and stock exchanges vied to appear founder-friendly or risk being shut out of the next big thing.
Splashing tens of billions of dollars on building the metaverse has gone down like a lead avatar with Meta Platforms Inc. shareholders, with its market capitalization down by about three-quarters from its peak of US$1.1 trillion reached barely a year ago.
Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has gone rogue, but I find myself unsympathetic to shareholders’ plight. Nobody forced them to purchase Meta stock and founder hubris is a risk you take when granting entrepreneurs nearly unfettered and indefinite control via super-voting shares. The dangers were clearly spelled out in Facebook’s 2012 initial public offering prospectus and subsequent financial filings.
