Facebook shareholders are furious about how CEO Mark Zuckerberg has handled a series of Facebook scandals, including interference in the 2016 US elections.
From the social network and the Cambridge Analytica firm's data breach that was revealed last year. This dissatisfaction with the founder, the Chairman of the Board and the CEO has reached new levels.
At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting on May 30, 68% of the shareholders who are not in the administration or on the Board of Directors of the Corporation voted to separate the roles of Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Corporation with which the leadership of Zuckerberg and his removal from office as president is imminent.
The revolt of shareholders on Facebook it has just passed into another phase, according to the results of the investor vote on Monday.
At their annual shareholders meeting last week, vThey discussed a series of proposals and the results highlight the anger among outside investors. These investors believe the company would benefit if an independent president held Zuckerberg and his management team accountable.
According to an analysis of results by Open Mic, an organization that works with activist shareholders to improve corporate governance at larger US companies, independent shareholders overwhelmingly supported two proposals to weaken the power of Mark Zuckerberg.
Shareholders are taking action against Mark Zuckerberg
In April, eight Facebook shareholder proposals were revealed contained in a previous filing by the company to the SEC, announcing its annual shareholders meeting on May 30.
Two of these proposals demonstrated the willingness of investors to make changes to the Facebook address.
In a proposal, investors they wanted to remove Zuckerberg as chairman of Facebook's board of directors in favor of hiring an independent executive. In the other proposal, investors wanted to introduce new "fair and appropriate mechanisms to eliminate the disproportionate rights of Class B shareholders."
Facebook has a two-class share structure. For “Class A” shareholders, one share equals one vote, but for “Class B” shareholders, one share represents ten votes. In the latter class, Zuckerberg and his entourage own about 18% of the total shares, according to CNBC, which equates to about 70% of the votes, and Zuckerberg himself owns 60%.
Mark Zuckerberg is still in control of Facebook
After the May 30 vote, roughly 68% of outside investors expressed that they no longer want to see Zuckerberg as chairman and instead want to bring in an independent personality to chair Facebook's board.
As soon as the proposals were submitted last April, Facebook asked its shareholders to reject the proposal, as in previous annual meetings.
"We believe that our capital structure is in the best interest of our shareholders and that our current structure is strong and effective," he said. Zuckerberg and his colleagues again rejected the independent president's proposal and the two-class action plans despite the uprising from outside investors.
In other words, if Zuckerberg and his closest allies disagree with shareholders, they can still prevail as long as Facebook's current management structure remains the same.
Another proposal estimated for external investors was approved by a majority on May 30 by the latter.
In fact, 83.2% of these investors supported the proposal to eliminate Facebook's two-class structure.
But the reforms were never adopted, as independent shareholders do not have enough votes to ditch Zuckerberg as chairman, as he controls the majority of the shares.
In the face of such actions, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg will continue to be in charge of Facebook, but things are not rosy, since shareholders want him out and this will not be the first or last attempt to remove Mark Zuckerberg from his own company.