Mass. Pension Sues Google Over Proposed Stock Split
The Brockton Retirement Board contends that officials of Google failed to act in the best interests of shareholders in creating a new class of stock, according to Bloomberg.
In the complaint filed in a Delaware Chancery Court the Fund stated, “The reclassification effort is a thinly veiled attempt to entrench” co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as dominant shareholders of Google by creating a nonvoting class of Google stock in order to preserve their voting power into perpetuity.”
Google now has Class A common shares, which have one vote each, and Class B shares, mostly held by the founders. Under the reclassification, all shareholders will receive a dividend of new, nonvoting Class C stock in what amounts to a 2-for-1 stock split, according to the complaint.
The Brockton fund asked a judge to block the new stock plan and award unspecified compensatory damages, reports Bloomberg.