When Gretchen Morgenstern finally calls it a career, Michael Hiltzik will be the worst business journalist in the country. Even when he's right, he's wrong. Case in point: Facebook:
Back at the time of Facebook's initial public offering in 2012, I advised its new stockholders:
"Congratulations. You're now married to Mark Zuckerberg." Since he would be one of the most deeply entrenched chief executives in American business thanks to a two-class stock structure that guaranteed him voting control over the company, I wrote, "You better hope he does everything right, because if he doesn't, he'll be harder to get rid of than tuberculosis."
Right. Of course, that was obvious to anybody who knew anything about dual class stock. (By the way, tuberculosis isn't that hard to get rid of unless it's the drug resistant kind, it just takes a while, but that's neither here nor there.
And that's the point. Facebook investors accepted a deal in which Zuckerberg had perpetual control. They don't get to renege. And regulatory busybodies shouldn't help them do so.
