Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is facing some opposition from some of the company's shareholders. In fact, the said shareholders are looking to oust him as the company's chairman of the board of directors.
A number of Facebook shareholders, majority of which belong to the consumer watchdog group SumOfUs, is calling for the removal of Zuckerberg from the chairmanship of the board. The group is citing the CEO's supposed maneuverings leading to an imbalance of power.
The proposal to have Zuckerberg ousted from the board stems from the current chairman's approval of a new capital structure. According to SumOfUs, Zuckerberg asked participants of the company's June shareholder meeting to vote on the issue of Class C shares. His proposal, which was approved, allowed the creation of a new class of voting shares which allowed Zuckerberg to retain voting control of the company. This would allow Zuckerberg to run Facebook "for a very long time".
According to Venture Beat, around 333,000 people have already signed the petition for the popular social network service company to change its corporate citizenship for the better. An estimated 1,500 of the signatures belonged to members of SumOfUs. The capital markets advisor for SumOfUs, Lisa Lindsley, also told Venture Beat that the shares of four Facebook shareholders who were also members of SumOfUs were enough for the watchdog group to file the proposal.
The watchdog group aims to have a new chairman that "can provide a balance of power between the CEO and the board". The proposal also wants the company to "support strong board leadership" who will be "particularly constructive" in the event that the company is faced with "increasing criticism" for its alleged role in the proliferation of fake news, racial profiling in advertisements, inconsistent application of guidelines and policies, and other issues.
Zuckerberg, as mentioned, has already signified his intentions to run the company as long as he could. This basically means the proposal will be junked especially considering that the Facebook founder owns one of the largest shares in the company.
