Should Facebook begin to undermine the power and the importance of Mark Zuckerberg? | Trade | Technology and science | Social networks

Historically, Facebook has been led by a single, absolute leader. This is consolidated by a special stock structure that gave control of the vote to one person: Mark Zuckerberg, who still sells millions of shares is still the one who "holds the wheel". But the recent collapse of the social network stock market could change this dynamic, according to "Bloomberg".

Historically, many investors have opposed the caudillismo model of the social network. But they accepted it when the company was in full swing and the stock value continued to rise. "It's never a problem until things go wrong," said Brian Wieser, an badyst at Pivotal Research Group, who believes that changing leadership or leadership Facebook is inevitable. "It is really hard to imagine that the status quo is maintained," he said.

Shares of Facebook fell by 20 per share last Thursday, after the announcement of the second quarter results of 2018 social network It cost investors $ 120 billion, which represents the biggest loss in the history of a business in a single day. They seem to have lost patience after lengthy debates about the role of the social network in society, but they were exasperated by the announcement of CFO David Wehner.

Growth rates will decrease from "high single-digit percentages." "In each of the next two quarters," said Wehner, "this translates into a loss of confidence in Mark Zuckerberg's ability to give strength to the claim that has been extinguished: he, the co-founder, CEO and president of the company , should share his voting power and give up the board. "Zuckerberg only responds to Zuckerberg," said Jonas Kron, Trillium Asset Management's director of shareholder advocacy, who has once approved the company's management. idea of ​​replacing the current CEO of Facebook as chairman of the board.Although he refused to identify who, he says that he has received several calls from other investors to support this proposal once again.

The other context

Last year, Facebook as well as other companies technology, has taken strong measures to badume its responsibilities policies, fight misinformation and manipulation of its platforms. Facts that have deteriorated its growth and worried its investors. Although the long-term sustainable model seems profitable in the long run, for Kron, everything could be better managed if Zuckerberg was supervised by an independent chairman of the board of directors.

Other technology companies have decided to separate the duties of CEOs. together in different characters. Twitter is one of the few who repeats the Facebook model and also suffered a stock market crash this week. So it seems "natural" to try to enforce action company in 2012: shareholders seeking to divert Zuckerberg from power

In 2012, California State Retirement System Teacher asked Facebook that separates the roles of CEO and Chairman of the Board and goes on to special actions that gave the company full control over Zuckerberg.

When Zuckerberg tried to sell almost all of his shares without losing control of the company, some investors demanded it. The threat was present until Facebook withdrew just before the trial began. The social network leader said that thanks to the fact that the stock had so increased its value could fund its philanthropic actions without selling a large part of its stake.

Finally, Trillium Asset Management presented a new proposal to separate the functions of CEO Facebook a few days before the presentation of the results last Wednesday. Similar to the one launched in 2017 that reached 51 percent of uninformed investors. Kron expects this number to increase.