Mark Zuckerberg Voted Out As Chairman

A shareholder revolt has taken place at Facebook, and Mark Zuckerburg has been voted out of his role as chairman.

The votes are in, and Zuckerberg is out. According to the final tally at Facebook’s annual shareholder meeting, 68% of outside investors want the social network to have an independent chairman. This is an increase of 17% from last year’s 51%. These results are a reflection of long-standing unrest among outside investors.

An analysis of the meeting’s results was put together by Open Mic, which works with activist shareholders in some of America’s biggest companies. According to Open Mic, ordinary investors, who aren’t a part of management or the board, have overwhelmingly supported two proposed measures which would seriously weaken Zuckerberg’s power at Facebook. Shareholders are quite upset about the way Zuckerberg has handled several serious scandals.

Among the largest scandals in Facebook’s short history, there was the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw personal information leaked, and shareholders weren’t happy with the crisis control employed by Zuckerberg. The current majority belief is that an independent chairman would be the best way forward. That way, the independent chairman would be able to keep Zuckerberg and his team more accountable, or so the logic goes. The Cambridge Analytica data breach saw Facebook shares fall significantly following the scandal’s outbreak, and Facebook hasn’t fully recovered yet. More trouble could be coming, as a US antitrust investigation may take place, and the news has already caused shares to plunge 7.5% on Monday as the news broke.

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5 years ago