Snap Votes and Banker Bonuses

Disappearing votes.

There is a bit of a tradition of initial public offerings by hot internet companies where the founders sell stock to the public but keep control for themselves by setting up dual-class share structures and giving themselves high-voting shares. But then later they realize that they haven't given themselves enough votes -- if they issue new stock for acquisitions, or sell some of their stock for philanthropic purposes, then they'll lose control of their companies --- and so they have to sort of shamefacedly creep back to the shareholders and say "hey would you mind giving us even more votes?" It's fine, really -- the founders control the company, so what are the shareholders going to do, say no? -- but it's a little awkward. People complain. You end up with triple-class stock. It all looks a little dumb.