Effect of dual-class stock structures on society

Question

Many technology companies use a dual-class stock structure, where the founders and VC investors have voting rights over the company, and the other class has no voting rights. On the whole (especially now that we can draw from examples across so many companies), do the benefits of this structure (leaders are insulated from the shortsightedness of public markets) outweigh the downsides (leaders can ignore the wishes of their shareholders)?

PaulHoule · Accepted Answer

Facebook is a good example.It might not have succeeded if Zuckerberg had been accountable to others. (Who&rsquo;d have believed it?)Today it looks socially harmful, and, looking back, it didn&rsquo;t escape the MySpace cycle (what was once was hip is now pass&eacute;) it just buys competitors one cycle at a time. It is still around but it is running on a treadmill and if it falters two cycles in a row kids will be asking their parents &lsquo;what was Facebook?&rsquo;