[TriLUG] OT: PT One tech issue from tonight's debate

[Chris Merrill]

On 10/19/2012 4:41 PM, Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:
>> I'm sorry, but it sounds like you don't understand how corporations work.
> 
> I'm the first to admit that there's a lot I don't know about corporations. Are you saying that
> 
> "The only obligations a company has to its shareholders occur at bankruptcy."
> 
> is false?

That statement is devoid of any context. But as a broad unqualified statement, it appears to be false.

Being that I have been an active part of starting and running the corporation by which I am
currently employed, I do understand some of the legalities. If the majority vote of shareholders
tells me to do X and I don't then they have just cause to fire me. I'm not sure if you interpret
this as an obligation of the corporation to do what the shareholders tell it, but I fail to see it
any other way.

> I read this statement in the business section of either the NYT or the Guardian recently, in an
> article on the myth that shareholders have so much power.

In many/most large publicly traded corporations, there is a grain of truth to this -- because the
shares are so widely owned that it is hard to get a majority to oppose the status quo.  Until the
profits go down the drain - then the shareholders vote out the board. But as an example, Mark
Zuckerberg is the majority shareholder of Facebook. And Facebook does EXACTLY what he tells them to.
There are many cases where shareholders will replace the management - though this happens most
frequently in smaller companies where the ownership is not so widely diluted.

> How do I know that everyone isn't cooperating in the game I described in my post and what you
> describe here is a sham?

I'm not telling!  There is no conspiracy!  These are not the droids you're looking for.
:>

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Chris Merrill                           |  Web Performance, Inc.
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