
The Conversation » Corporate governance
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The Conversation » Corporate governance
1M ago
Achieving greater transparency and accountability in democratic governance and in capitalist economics must occur simultaneously. shutterstock
Secrecy has become as important for corporations as transparent and taxable profits used to be, according to Raymond W. Baker in his new book Invisible Trillions. Global capitalism, he argues, operates beyond the rule of law. This contributes to extreme inequality that threatens liberal democracy.
Deals in the financial secrecy system account for half of global economic operations. This is far beyond illicit transfers of funds through corporate under-pr ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
4M ago
“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg told the 11,000 staff he sacked this week.
But does he really?
The retrenchment of about 13% of the workforce at Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, comes as Zuckerberg’s ambitions for a “metaverse” tank.
The company’s net income in the third quarter of 2022 (July to September) was US$4.4 billion – less than half the US$9.2 billion it made in the same period in 2021.
That’s due to a 5% decline in total revenue and a 20% increase in costs, as the Facebook creator invested in his idea ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
5M ago
Twitter may soon be without the benefits – or the problems – of a public board of directors. A-Digit/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images
After a wild ride, it looks like Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter may be back on.
Twitter’s board of directors had sued the Tesla billionaire in July 2022 when Musk tried to terminate the US$44 billion deal. The board has yet to drop its lawsuit, with a trial still scheduled to begin Oct. 17, 2022, which was intended to force Musk to complete the buyout.
The board has in fact been at the center of this saga since the beginning, when Musk launched h ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
6M ago
There's a void of responsible leadership at Hockey Canada and other scandal-plagued organizations. Governments can't fix those systemic problems. (Shutterstock)
The Hockey Canada scandal has sparked anger and outrage. Many argue the Canadian government should take action.
We saw similar cries for action with the major Rogers service outage in July 2022. And when Laurentian University sought creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in 2021, the Ontario Auditor General was called in.
When things go south, we all want a remedy, and it’s easy to ask the government to step ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
11M ago
Twitter will soon be without the benefits – and problems – of a public board of directors. A-Digit/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images
It appears Twitter’s board of directors finally warmed to Elon Musk’ hostile bid and agreed to a sale – but not before it took a severe beating from the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and other prominent users on their own social network.
Musk, who on April 25, 2022, sealed a deal to buy Twitter for US$44 billion, criticized board members for owning almost no shares of the company they oversee. Dorsey, who will step down ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
1y ago
Getty images
In the first ever case of its kind, ClientEarth – a UK-based organisation that works with NGOS to fight legal battles on environmental issues – is taking Shell’s board of directors to court for failing to properly prepare for an energy transition. This involves moving from carbon-emitting fossil fuels in line with climate science, and at a pace and scale that aligns with the Paris Agreement goal to keep global temperature rises to below 1.5°C by 2050.
In mid-March the campaign group began legal proceedings based on the claim that Shell board’s mismanagement of climate risk puts i ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
1y ago
Musk argues Twitter is better off in private hands – his. Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP
Billionaire Elon Musk says he wants to take Twitter private by buying 100% of its publicly held shares in a deal worth US$43 billion.
In a letter to the board, he said that Twitter can’t serve as a platform for free speech as a public company. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” he wrote.
I’m a scholar in corporate leadership and governance. A big problem with private companies is they lack the safeguards of public corporations – like outside ownership and independent oversight.
Public owner ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
1y ago
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To say Australian universities are in crisis is to state the obvious. A common narrative suggests the most immediate cause of the current crisis is “reduced international student revenue and income from investments, such as dividends” during the pandemic. Some correlation is undeniable. However, many commentators have noted that the problems besetting our universities transcend financial issues alone and predate the pandemic.
The root causes, we suggest, lie in radical changes in how Australian universities are governed. The shift toward a quasi-corporate model of governance incl ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
1y ago
In 2020, for the first time in Australia, more than half the shareholders of a public company voted in support of a climate change resolution put forward by shareholders in the face of opposition from the company’s board of directors.
The resolution, advanced at Woodside Petroleum’s annual general meeting, called for the company to establish hard targets to bring its own emissions and the emissions caused by the use of its products globally in line with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below two degrees.
A similar resolution followed at this year’s AGL annual general meeting, gaining ..read more
The Conversation » Corporate governance
1y ago
Logan Roy, the media titan played by Brian Cox. HBO/BSkyB
Will Logan Roy be brought down after his son Kendall publicly blamed him for covering up a litany of rapes and sexual assaults in Waystar Royco’s cruise-ships division? That’s the burning question that will be answered in season 3 of blockbuster business drama Succession, which is finally underway after being delayed by the pandemic.
For the uninitiated, Waystar Royco is a fictional media conglomerate along the lines of Disney or News Corporation. Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) is its ageing emperor, unwilling to relinquish control and ..read more