Investing
Why Google's Annual Shareholder Meeting Just Does Not Matter (GOOG, FB, YHOO, MSFT)
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Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is hosting its annual shareholder meeting today at 2:00 PM local time (5:00 PM EST). Investors should really consider something here: today’s annual shareholder meeting just doesn’t matter.
The problem is that Google is one of the eleven other companies where shareholders truly have no power. Sergey Brin and Larry Page have enough of the voting power to reign over any shareholder proposals and to pass any personal proposals they would have for Google. This is due to the A-shares and B-shares which allow the insiders to have a super-majority vote over those little common stock holders. Sergey and Larry hold close to 65% of the combined voting power.
The proxy filing noted, “Your vote is important. Whether or not you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, we hope you will vote as soon as possible.” They just did not include “Your vote matters, even if it has no real power.”
The woes of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) may have actually helped Google. The question on this ahead is whether or not the Google ad-exchange can help Facebook hone in better on display advertising rates. Google has seen more competition from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! INc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) due to the growth of Bing over the last year or more. Unfortunately, that is not likely to matter for today’s shareholder meeting.
Here are the points up for vote:
The matters for vote two which were bolded above are the most important issues to consider. Unfortunately, the shareholders just do not have enough votes to influence the outcome unless Sergey and Larry decide that they suddenly want shareholders to have a real vote.
Read Also: 11 Companies Where Shareholders Have No Power – At All
JON C. OGG
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