Even under Alphabet, Google executives keep the same old tight control over shares

On Wednesday, a select few holders of Google stock practiced their annual ritual of asking the company to end its stock structure that heavily favors top management.

And top management practiced its annual ritual of soundly rejecting that proposal.

Google's annual meeting, where it invites stockholders to its headquarters, marks its first since reorganizing itself into the holding company Alphabet. But the agenda was virtually identical to prior years. It began with a vote approving Alphabet's board, which is the same as Google's.

Then came shareholder proposals. The first is a familiar one: A shareholder group asked Alphabet to scrap its dual-voting structure, proposed four years ago, that clumps most voting power in Class B shares, which are primarily owned by Google co-founders and Alphabet chiefs Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

“We are very concerned at the use of insider control at Alphabet," a shareholder said introducing the proposal. Shareholders raised the same argument last year, when the company was called Google.

Subsequent proposals asked Alphabet to disclose more on its political spending and compensation structure by gender.

All were voted down. Page and Brin, who attended the meeting in person last year, voted via proxy.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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