Alphabet Inc ($GOOG) voting rights are essentially worthless, right?
GOOGL (Class A) is back at a premium to GOOG (Class C). What happened?
Why is alphabet counted twice in top ten holdings across these index funds?
Alphabet Deserves A Better Valuation
Can I convert GOOG to GOOGL or vice versa?
Do both classes pay the same dividends?
Which is more volatile?
Videos
There are 3 classes of Alphabet Inc stock: A, B and C - all representing equal ownership % stakes.
-
Class A shares = Regular voting rights. 1 vote each. Publicly/exchange traded.
-
Class C shares = No voting rights. 0 votes each. Publicly/exchange traded.
-
Class B shares = Super-voting rights. 10 votes each. Privately/non-exchange-traded.
The Class B shares are held only by company insiders. To my knowledge, there are 64 holders in total, though the large majority of them are owned by co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. So despite owning about 9% of Alphabet shares between them, Sergey and Larry control over 50% of shareholder votes.
Although I think it's a good idea for the two of them to be able to steer the company as they see fit, it seems insane to me that they can't be outvoted by the other 90% of shareholders.
Is there any point in Class A shares having voting power at all? The only thing I can think of is that it allows Sergey and Larry to gauge the general opinion of shareholders as a whole and take it into account.