Meta shareholders look to haul CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg to court

https://nypost.com/2025/07/15/business/meta-shareholders-aim-to-haul-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-sheryl-sandberg-to-court/

by 1vuio0pswjnm7 • 1 year ago

80 67 1 year ago

nypost.com

v5v36• 1 year ago

Wow. Go Meta shareholders!!

tester756• 1 year ago

Meta's stock did 26x since 2012, they're already winning

vkou• 1 year ago

They are upset it didn't go 66x.

FredPret• 1 year ago

Meta absolutely pumps out money.

It's embedded in the sales process of very many, perhaps most, businesses, and their margins are huge.

https://valustox.com/META

lenerdenator3• 1 year ago

"We knowingly bought into a scheme where one man - the one we're suing - has 51% of the voting power on all corporate affairs. We think he screwed up and owes us money. Can you help us?" - the shareholders to the Delaware CoC, in effect.

Remember: the people who work for these shareholders - most of which are institutional investors, not individuals - went to exclusive schools and make more in bonuses than you will in a lifetime of work, at least if you're the average American.

gnopgnip3• 1 year ago

The company, board of directors still owes a fiduciary duty to minority shareholders. Having 51% of voting control doesn't change that.

philipov2• 1 year ago

If you don't like how a company is being managed, your recourse is to pull your investment.

pbalau3• 1 year ago

Not sure what your point is, the Meta shares are doing great, hence Zuckerberg being in charge of things works.

elcritch5• 1 year ago

Can you cite case law for this opinion which would apply to a large public corporation during normal management?

newsclues• 1 year ago

Is this fiduciary duty to make as much money as possible (who gets to decide what the max is), or just not to scam or steal from your investors?

palmotea• 1 year ago

Remember: the people who work for these shareholders - most of which are institutional investors, not individuals - went to exclusive schools and make more in bonuses than you will in a lifetime of work, at least if you're the average American.

So? What's your point? We should root for Zuckerberg because the people who are suing him are rich? Zuckerberg is an order of magnitude worse in all those resentment metrics you list than the people who are suing him.

orochimaaru• 1 year ago

Not true. These are people who are likely responsible for global economic meltdowns and then asking for handouts (anyone remember 2008). Zuck isn’t making anyone’s life harder without them signing into his platforms. Just stay off of them if you don’t like zuck.

But you can’t stay off the financial system. So, creepy as zuck maybe, I think he is impact for evil is a whole lot less.

lenerdenator3• 1 year ago

My point is that everyone involved is awful and that none of this should happen in a remotely sane society. What kind of corporate governance model allows for a dictatorship? Why aren't the shareholders just selling if they think they were wronged the better part of a decade ago?

Because we're insane.

Maybe they're filing the suit out of the fiduciary duty to their fund members. Worst-case scenario, it goes nowhere. Best-case scenario, they get money out of Meta. Now, they're doing this off the backs of the people of Delaware, but whatever.

v5v36• 1 year ago

Have you worked in this area?

I have worked with asset managers, employees come from all around the world and vary in background. Yes there will be a weighting to the more privileged kids but most of the jobs don't make big bonuses. That's just the Sales leads and funds managers.

But it's irrelevant. As the institutional investors who invest are doing so for their underlying investors e.g. Pension Funds.

The people suing, if win, will report higher results and their bonuses will be higher but so will the underlying investors.

yogurtboy• 1 year ago

Does anybody with knowledge of the process know if this can be a path to holding companies liable for the private data they save?

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF2• 1 year ago

You would have to be a shareholder (which you probably are if you have a 401k) and you would have to show that their decision to save and use private data has hurt their enterprise such that they would have been more profitable and/or grown more/faster had they not done so.

aaroninsf• 1 year ago

I'm cynical enough to think that this, too, will result in a payout of some kind. Whatever it might be called.

Companies like this are too big to be held accountable. Every problem is soluble given their capitalization, the only consequence is irritation and fighting—usually among those already complicit and merely concerned that they didn't maximize their view—of interest to few.

Meanwhile, Rome is burning. Oh well.

v5v36• 1 year ago

Meta are not involved.

Individuals directors are being sued, not the company

tptacek3• 1 year ago

These kinds of suits are so common that directors and officers of large corporations all carry insurance against them --- is there something particularly notable about this suit?

marshray2• 1 year ago

It discusses HN-adjacent VCs, Delaware business law, and "Big Tech" and government regulation.

But, yeah, the $8B in question hardly seems existential to FB.

tptacek3• 1 year ago

Oh, yeah, no, I totally get why a serious lawsuit against Facebook execs would be on-topic for HN! I'm more asking, doesn't Facebook see a lawsuit like this like once a quarter?

1vuio0pswjnm72• 1 year ago

"The lawsuit is considered the first of its kind to go to trial that alleges that board members consciously failed to oversee their company."

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/07/16...

https://www.klgates.com/The-Continued-Evolution-of-Caremark-...

IMO, also notable because of who is scheduled to testify.

Unless I am missing something, I don't think Zuckerberg has ever been questioned under oath in court.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/22/facebook-settles-class-actio...

bawolff4• 1 year ago

IANAL, but this case sounds like the extremest of long shots to me. Does anyone who knows about this sort of thing have any idea how likely such a lawsuit is to suceede?

boringg• 1 year ago

How many shareholders are leading this? It better not be someone who owns one share that they didn't even hold for that long....

1vuio0pswjnm72• 1 year ago

As one might expect Zuckerberg has now reached a settlement with the plaintiffs. Andreesen was scheduled to take the stand today. As in 2017, Andreesen and Zuckerberg have avoided having to answer questions in a courtroom under oath. By settling at the 11th hour.

Meta shareholders look to haul CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg to court

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