A plan to fire Mark Zuckerberg as chairman of Facebook, leaving him just as CEO of the social media company staggered by a $119-billion loss on Thursday, has been drawn up 10 months before the next shareholder's meeting, the Business Insider reported.
The proposal by Trillium Assets Management, which manages about $11 million in Facebook stock, said an independent chairman is needed to break up Zuckerberg's conflicting dual role as chairman and chief executive officer.
"A CEO who also serves as chair can exert excessive influence on the board and its agenda, weakening the board's oversight of management," the proposal says, according to the Business Insider.
"Separating the chair and CEO positions reduces this conflict, and an independent chair provides the clearest separation of power between the CEO and the rest of the board."
Word of some stockholder rebellion comes after Facebook suffered the largest one-day loss in U.S. market history, according to CBS News, with Facebook shares plunging $41.24 – nearly 19 percent of their value – to $176.26.
Zuckerberg himself lost more than $15 billion in net worth in one day and is no longer among the top five billionaires in the world, USA Today reported.
The fall came after a Facebook executive said profits margins would tumble for several years because of the cost of improving privacy safeguards and slowing usage in the Internet's biggest advertising markets, Reuters reported.
"The perceived narrative surrounding Facebook has changed after yesterday's earnings announcement," said Jeff Henriksen, managing partner at Thorpe Abbotts Capital, according to the Business Insider. "The market seems to be questioning the quality of growth seen in the past."
The Trillium Assets proposal charged that the lack of an independent board chair and oversight contributed to Facebook "missing, or mishandling, a number of severe controversies," including the social media site being used for the Russian meddling in U.S. elections, the sharing personal data of 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica, proliferation of fake news and others, the Business Insider said.
The website pointed out, though, that Facebook's dual-class share structure may prevent the proposal from gaining steam. Facebook Class B shares have 10 times the voting power of Class A shares, and Zuckerberg owns 75 percent of the Class B stocks.
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