Thursday, June 08, 2017

Google parent Alphabet gender-pay proposal dead on arrival

The San Jose Mercury News reports:
A proposal from two investment firms to order Google’s parent firm Alphabet to issue a report on an alleged “gender pay gap” was dead even before it was read out at Wednesday’s annual stockholders meeting.

Earlier proxy voting by investors killed the measure, which was also proposed last year, Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt told the meeting, held at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View.

Six other investor proposals, including three for more transparency over Alphabet’s lobbying, political and charitable contributions and one for a report on the firm’s “failure to effectively manage” fake news, were also nixed by shareholders, who voted in support of the board’s recommendation against all seven proposals.

Support by outside shareholders for any of the measures would not have been enough to approve them if Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin voted against them, because according to an April 28 company statement to investors, the two control 51 percent of total shareholder voting power.
Imagine that.