1. What is the relevance of posting that years old 8-K about Twitter? The corporate structure is totally different now, with xAI having acquired X Corp in March.
2. Regardless of that, X is a private company with a hired CEO (by "hired CEO" I mean as opposed to a founder CEO or family CEO). There are tons and tons of companies like this, and most of them have active, traditional CEOs. The ownership and board structure of X isn't the thing that implies that the CEO is a figurehead - I'd argue Musk's megalomania is what does that.
Did you read the section regarding the merger requirements which is quite unusual and reveals the level of control of Musk et. al (X Holdings)? This is why I brought up that particular 8k.
The ownership and board structure serve as de facto evidence of control by Musk.
There really aren't any other companies (notably in the social media sector) that have this ownership structure. Hilariously enough, by board structure and stock ownership, Trump has less control over Truth Social.
- No. There are many companies that have board mandates such that one single entity can never have a prima facie super-majority of voting power.
- Yes it does. Under this structure, the CEO has no voting power on the board or right to initiate matters before it. Usually, a CEO has at least 1 vote and that right.
- Not true in corporations where there are distinct cohorts of stock classes such that the owners of (e.g. class "A") a particular stock have 10-100x more voting power than (e.g. class "B") and as a "price" to assume the role of CEO one must "purchase" a controlling majority of shares.
- I didn't say a single entity, I said "owners". In the case of X there are many owners, Elon Musk with the most power. Nobody who is not an owner controls the company, which is what you would need to demonstrate to invalidate my point.
- A "figurehead" is someone who cannot make meaningful decisions / impact. This does not automatically apply to any CEO who does not having voting power on the board or with shares. You can very clearly run an entire company in a very real way without a single board seat or share. Many CEOs have done it in the past, many will do it in the future. Just like how you can be the manager of an auto-repair shop without owning a bit of it and you're not automatically a "figurehead manager".
- A CEO who owns a majority of preferred shares is in fact the/an "owner" of the company. One owner having more control than another is obviously not the purpose of this conversation. The question is whether a hired CEO without voting power (whether via the board or with shares) is automatically a figurehead. Demonstrating that a CEO can be an owner with more power does not change that, because the question is about CEOs without meaningful ownership. This is obvious to anyone not trying to create a "gotcha".
