Meta’s board wants Mark Zuckerberg to stick around.
The company announced a new class of non-voting Class C shares in its third-quarter earnings report. He lists several reasons why the new class was created, one of which is to maintain control over the CEO.
A special committee established by Meta’s board of directors determined that Zuckerberg was best suited to lead the company into its future and highlighted the CEO’s creative vision and management abilities.
“The creation of the Class C common stock will continue the founder-led model that has driven the company’s success since its inception,” Meta said.
The share class will also provide Meta with the ability to fund its growth, the earnings report said. Meta spends a lot of money on AI and the data centers needed to operate it. The company reported $34.91 billion in capital expenditures in the third quarter.
Meta’s press release states that the distribution would effectively amount to a two-for-one share split for existing shareholders. Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said the shares would be distributed to existing shareholders.
Other technology companies have issued shares to access new capital without diluting their CEO’s voting power. Google did a stock split in 2012 for a similar reason. Semafor was the first to declare the new share class.
Zuckerberg has long been the face of Meta. He strengthened his leadership thanks to the AI boom, going into “startup mode” and familiarizing himself with the technology. The company’s AI team has set up its offices around Zuckerberg’s location.
The success of Muse, Meta’s AI agent, has raised the profile of another Meta leader: Alexandr Wang. The AI director joined Zuckerberg for podcasts and spoke on stage during keynotes.
Last week, a Financial Times article touted Wang as a “potential successor to Zuckerberg.” It’s clear that the board wants Zuckerberg to be around for the long term.
Gn headline
