Facebook shareholders rejected a proposal that would have granted stockholders one vote per share, according to preliminary results from the company’s annual meeting. Stockholder Northstar Asset Management tabled the proposal of amendments in the current voting rights.
Zuckerberg holds biggest stake in Facebook (FB)
At present, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has two tiers of shareholders. Class B stockholders, who invested before the IPO, have greater voting power of ten votes per share, and Class A stockholders, who invested after the IPO, have just one vote per share. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg happens to be its biggest shareholder with 54% of the voting power, holding approximately 422 million Class B shares, according to the proxy statement.
“What we’re asking for is for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to recapitalize the shares so that each share gets one vote,” Northstar Asset Management founder and CEO Julie Goodridge told CNBC.
Northstar acquired Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares during the social network’s IPO. It owns around 56,000 shares of the company, which is worth just shy of $5 million. Goodridge said that the shareholders should have some sort of say in the company regarding appropriate corporate governance, especially auditors on the board and other issues related to sustainability such as electioneering contributions. Apart from Facebook, Northstar also filed a similar proposal with Google, which has three classes of shares.
Other proposals at the meeting
Apart from this proposal, two other proposals were also floated, with one covering a regular sustainability report and the other requesting a review of site policies for protecting the data and rights of minors.
A re-election was held, and eight directors of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, were re-elected during the meeting held in Menlo Park, Calif. Post-voting, there were questions asked about workplace strategies ranging from hiring to selling. Also civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson asked the company to bring more diversity to the workplace, whereas other shareholders wanted to know the future of mobile advertising.
During the meeting, FFacebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s CEO discussed his short- and long-term visions for the future of the company, suggesting that the organization will continue to expand on services that would allow people to communicate every day, and over the long-term, the focus will be on the massive changes in the world to get it more connected.
On Thursday, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares closed down 0.40% at $81.83, and year to date, the stock is up by over 3%. More details on the meeting can be found here.
