Comment by FreakLegion

robocat was answering a general question about the relationship between ownership and control. And they're right that representing 84% of the voting shares doesn't mean anything. It's standard for major investors to have their board seats guaranteed, plus veto rights over things like creating new stock and selling the company. (It's not standard to have "the ability to sack the founder and take control", though.)

Founders are almost always outnumbered on the board by Series B, but like I speculated in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49638676, Automattic is unusual here, and Mullenweg may control it. There's still a decent chance that True Ventures left in protest rather than being booted, though, and has the right to a seat[1]. It's just, what's the point if Mullenweg has them beat 4-1?

1. Edit: The article confirms that Toni Schneider resigned, but not whether True Ventures (his firm) has the right to a seat.