After the success of the Membership Shares proposal let’s look at how corporations use share classes to maintain total control of their companies.
After looking at Meta and Alphabet I was curious how much control Zuckerberg actually has. So I made a chart of all the shares of Meta and the corresponding voting power.
83% of all the shares of Meta are Class A and 17% are Class B, with Zuck owning/controlling most of those shares in how they vote.
The result is that Zuck’s 14% stake in Meta controls 55% of the votes, plus he controls another 5%.
This is the new model for how companies go public, with investors just riding along hoping it all goes well but unable to influence anything about the company. And as long as the companies make money, no one cares.
Shares Classes In KmikeyM
KmikeyM has actually been a dual class system since the beginning of the project. When the shares first hit the market in 2008 there were 100,000 of them and I held them all. These were all Founder Shares which held the same value as regular shares but without any voting power.
Just as Meta’s Class B shares, with the 10x voting power, convert to regular Class A shares when sold, the Founder’s Shares also convert to regular shares when I sell them. These shares are then given 1 vote per share.
After the Membership Share vote we now have three classes of KmikeyM shares. We have the Founder Shares, with no voting power, the regular shares with one vote and the new Membership Shares, which have 1 vote but can’t be sold.
| Founder’s Share | Membership Share | Regular Share | |
| Voting | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trading | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Membership Shares
Each account on KmikeyM is required to hold a membership share. This share grants access to parts of the KmikeyM platform not available to the general public. Members are able to vote on new proposals and buy more or sell all their shares. An account can only hold one membership share.
Regular Shares
All shares purchased or traded after the Membership share are Regular Shares, which can be used to vote on shareholder proposals and also listed on the trading platform.
When a new account is created the first share purchased will convert from a Regular Share into a Membership share for that new account.
Founder Shares
Founder shares can only be held by K. Mike Merrill. They are non-voting but can be traded or given to shareholders. When a share is transferred from K. Mike Merrill it converts from a Founder’s Share to a Regular Share or Membership Share.
If a share is acquired by K. Mike Merrill (stock buy backs, returned, etc.) that share is converted to a Founder Share.