Shareholders force Zuckerberg to give up plan for non-voting shares

Shareholders force Zuckerberg to give up plan for non-voting shares

Mark Zuckerberg is giving up on an audacious plan to sell most of his Facebook shares without diminishing his total control over the company. The plan, which Facebook announced last year, would have given shareholders two new non-voting shares for each voting share they owned. Zuckerberg hoped to sell these shares to finance his charitable ambitions.

But shareholders sued, arguing that the plan would further consolidate power in Zuckerberg's hands with no benefits to other shareholders. Zuckerberg was scheduled to testify in court in the case on Tuesday. Abandoning the plan saves Zuckerberg from having to do that.

Facebook's corporate structure is even more concentrated: Zuckerberg alone controlled a majority of Facebook's shares when the company went public in 2012.