mebeing
Mark Zuckerberg has set a new personal challenge for the New Year that is fueling speculation of him entering politics. With a lot of time spent in many states, Zuckerberg has recently announced his personal challenge to visit people in 50 states.
Without losing control of the leading social networking giant Facebook, Zuckerberg was allowed to serve two years in government. Rather than just becoming a cabinet member for less than two years, he now has the opportunity to be appointed or elected to a major post along with an infinite possibility to rule. The entrepreneur and philanthropist plans to find a way to change the game so it works for everyone. With technology and globalization, he wants to make people more productive and connected. Although getting elected for politics requires faith of people in Zuckerberg which has been badly shaken by the platform’s fake news scandal.
Despite Zuckerberg’s massive philanthropy initiatives, some people consider his dive into politics a selfish push for power. Bloomberg’s interpretation of unsealed court filings regarding correspondence between Facebook board member Marc Andreesen and Zuckerberg aroused confusions. They secretly texted on how to convince the other board members to approve the creation of Class-C non-voting shares which would allow Zuckerberg to retain voting control of the social platform as he donates majority of his wealth to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is his and his wife’s charitable organization.
According to this negotiation, in order to mitigate the succession risks Zuckerberg agreed to several ways. His 10-votes-per-share Class B stock becomes disabled in case he dies or voluntarily resigns and leaves the company. Such cases will convert his stock into single vote Class A shares. In this way Facebook will be able to invite a higher quality replacement CEO.
But Zuckerberg resignation is connected to a much bigger exception. He can maintain voting control of Facebook even if he voluntarily resigns or take leave of absence for working in government. He will be only limited if he
If he either owns 30% or more of company’s capital shares while signing the agreement in June and discuss about the issue with Facebook’s independent directors.
Or
Have less than 30% of the shares but have received approval from majority of the Facebook’s independent directors or serve for less than two years.
Basically Zuckerberg can easily serve in government if he owns enough of Facebook but if he doesn’t than he will require board’s approval. It seems the secret texting between Zuckerberg and Andreessen was up just for a debate amongst the board. According to Bloomberg, there is a two year cap on Zuckerberg’s government service but it does not describe how the limit could be avoided. But other publications including Fortune, Vanity Fair, and The Guardian report that two year is a hard limit.
Now with all the confusion being cleared away, Zuckerberg’s ability to bring changes through government service has come under discussion. Being eh pioneer of the digital nation, he already gets treated as a leader. Now he is planning to meet and listen to people nation-wide in order to connect the world and give everyone a voice. The basic purpose for visiting all states is to know the opinions of people, their needs, and their beliefs. His aim is to reshape the world by poking his way into politics. Zuckerberg’s long-term plans cannot fit into a two year time span therefore he needs an infinite duration to nurture the thoughts he aims to collect during his visits.
Via: Tech Crunch
