Comment by londons_explore

2 days ago

If you IPO but the founders still have more than half the voting rights, you can fully ignore the public in all your decision making and there is nothing the other shareholders can do.

Can't they sue you out of control? Fiduciary duty and all?

  • Fiduciary duty means "put the shareholders' interests above yours". Not "make the shareholders more and more money no matter what".

  • If you employed your cousin on a huge wage, probably yes.

    But if you're just running the company 'badly' (in the shareholders eyes), probably no.

Only kind of. The most obvious examples are big tech companies such as Meta or Alphabet. But they pay their employees in RSUs. If the stock price falls employees make less money and can be lured away.