Facebook has created a dual-class stock plan to give founder Mark Zuckerberg and a few other share holders control over the network. It is nothing new and is the same plan created by Google when they went public in 2004.
Image via Wikipedia
Facebook has no plans to go public at this time but they have handed over controlling interest of the network to founder Mark Zuckerberg and a few other shareholders by creating a dual-class stock plan.
Image via Wikipedia
It’s the same arrangement Google Inc’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created to keep voting control of their company before it went public in 2004. Google’s class B shares, owned by Page, Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt, and a few directors hold 10 times more voting power than it’s regular class A stock.
Image via Wikipedia
Facebook Inc.said they created the stock structure because stockholders wanted to keep control when voting on important issues it faces. While dual class structures are somewhat unusual, they aren’t limited only to high tech companies. The New York Times, among others, has a dual-class stock structure to give control to the Ochs-Sulzberger family even though they own only one fifth of that newspaper company.
Image by dannysullivan via Flickr
So it does look as if the move could be seen as laying the ground work for an initial public offering, even though says it has no such plans, “at this time.” There must be some reasoning behind the change of the stock structure. At least while the groundwork is being laid, mum is the word.
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January 1st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Interesting information. I did join Facebook a while back but have never been on it since.
Christine
January 1st, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Millionaire babies wheelin and dealin I too joined facebook, but hardly go over there.
January 1st, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I am a member but it takes so long for the site to load I rarely spend time on it.
January 1st, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Interesting article Ruby. I hardly go to facebook.
January 1st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Very interesting, I haven’t done facebook yet- Not sure about doing it.
January 1st, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Interesting.
Thanks,
Inna
January 1st, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Oh, it’s the same old reasons: control and more money. Otherwise they wouldn’t do it.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I noticed that too. I’m about to leave facebook because I’ve been receiving spam messages.
January 1st, 2010 at 8:01 pm
That’s interesting, I can understand that they would want to retain control.
January 1st, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Interesting article, Ruby, I’m not on facebook.
January 1st, 2010 at 10:05 pm
thats sound interesting
January 1st, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Good for them. They have a great platform
January 1st, 2010 at 11:16 pm
A good thing to know.
January 1st, 2010 at 11:16 pm
A good thing to know about.
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 am
Very Interesting article…
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:16 am
Thanks for the info, Ruby!
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:19 am
Thanks for explaining this so clearly Ruby.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
Thanks Ruby. I use facebook sometimes and I got some more information about it today.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Interesting….. FB is one of those things that I put down to serndipity. These guys were in the right place at the same time. I am *sooooo* jealous!
January 4th, 2010 at 11:45 am
thanks for the info…
January 4th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for the information, Ruby. I did not hear about this. I have been having problems with FB lately.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
That’s nice Ruby. But I can’t convince myself to join Facebook at this time.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Interesting information. My husband opened a Facebook account in my name to help promote my articles. I don’t really know if it works or not. I don’t have time to play with it. I did however receive a message from an old boyfriend of our daughters who wanted to say hi and asked how we were doing. I did enjoy hearing from him.