Google's Governance Scores Low

0.2 out of 100

[rogerd]

Institutional Shareholder Services, an organization which advises shareholders how to vote on proxy issues, claims that Google scores very poorly on corporate governance. Issues include too much insider control and too few outside directors. According to the report, Google scored 0.2 out of 100 for their "governance quotient".

[money.cnn.com...]

[Lord Majestic]

an organization which advises shareholders how to vote on proxy issues

With majority (or controlling/blocking stake?) of votes being held by the founders + CEO it is kind of pointless to even talk about "voting", its more like swimming with the flow.

[rogerd]

In an offering of this type, minority shareholders are inherently disadvantaged. It's not a problem if management is excellent. If management gets fat & happy, however, it makes it tough for outside shareholders to effect change.

[bnhall]

The point is, Google will soon be rated the worst company in the S&P 500 index on corporate governance. I would expect them to consider this a major issue and to try to fix it.