Google rejects shareholder resolution saying company should be broken up

Google’s parent company on Wednesday rejected a call from its own shareholders to break up the internet search giant over concerns that it has grown too large and unmanageable.

The proposal was one of 13 shareholder proposals aimed at making Google more accountable to its investors that were ultimately defeated at its parent company Alphabet’s annual shareholder meeting in Sunnyvale, Calif.

{mosads}An activist with Students for a Free Tibet named Sonamtso argued that Google has been too slow to respond to concerns about its handling of hate speech, privacy and human rights under authoritarian governments like China’s.

“We believe that Alphabet has grown to a size and complexity that is unmanageable as evidenced by numerous failures of oversight and management,” Sonamtso said at the meeting. “It is to the advantage of shareholders to be proactive in determining the company’s next steps rather than waiting for antitrust regulators to set a path.”

The proposal was put forth by the consumer group SumOfUs, which helped organize protests outside the meeting.

“We believe that shareholders could receive greater value from a voluntary strategic reduction in the size of the company than from asset sales compelled by regulators,” the group said in its proposal.

The proposals had little chance of passing. Alphabet’s stock structure gives its own executives control over a majority of shareholder votes despite owning relatively small shares of the company.

Silicon Valley’s growing body of critics say that those structures have insulated the industry from proper oversight and led to the increased scrutiny from regulators around the world concerned about tech giants’ market power, handling of user data and content moderation.

Alphabet’s board also defeated proposals to restructure its stock to give investors a greater voting share, examine its record and policies on sexual harassment and assess the human rights impact if Google were to reintroduce a censored search engine in China.

Conspicuously absent from the investor meeting was Alphabet’s CEO, Larry Page, who rarely makes public appearances.

Asked by an investor why Page avoids the meetings that offer shareholders their only opportunity to question Google’s management, John Hennessy, the chairman of Alphabet’s board of directors, offered a vague answer.

“Unfortunately, Larry was not able to be here, but Larry has been at every single board meeting,” Hennessy said. “I certainly meet with him along with every other board member frequently.”

— This report was updated at 2:30 p.m.