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posted by chromas on Thursday October 18 2018, @05:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-zucc-the-Zuck! dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

At Facebook, public funds join push to remove Zuckerberg as chairman

Four major U.S. public funds that hold shares in Facebook Inc on Wednesday proposed removing Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg as chairman following several high-profile scandals and said they hoped to gain backing from larger asset managers. State treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, co-filed the proposal. They oversee money including pension funds and joined activist and original filer Trillium Asset Management.

A similar shareholder proposal seeking an independent chair was defeated in 2017 at Facebook, where Zuckerberg's majority control makes outsider resolutions effectively symbolic. Rhode Island State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said that the latest proposal was still worth filing as a way of drawing attention to Facebook's problems and how to solve them. "This will allow us to force a conversation at the annual meeting, and from now until then in the court of public opinion," Magaziner said in a telephone interview.

[...] At least three of the four public funds supported the 2017 resolution as well. The current proposal, meant for Facebook's annual shareholder meeting in May 2019, asks the board to create an independent board chair to improve oversight, a common practice at other companies. It cites controversies that have hurt the reputation of the world’s largest social media network, including the unauthorized sharing of user information, the proliferation of fake news, and foreign meddling in U.S. elections.

[...] Zuckerberg has about 60 percent voting rights, according to a company filing in April.

Also at TechCrunch, Tech2, Tech Insider, CNBC, and Fortune.


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  • (Score: 1) by NateMich on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:11PM

    by NateMich (6662) on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:11PM (#750702)

    Serious question. What good would this do?

    My best guess is that it would mean is there would be some fairly unknown rich person put in the CEO post

    Probably. And just like with almost any other company, once they do this it all starts going downhill and they fade into obscurity.

    Sounds like a plan.