Under Germany's dual board structure, a merger would require the approval of the supervisory board, which is chaired by Manfred Schneider, the former CEO who staked his career on keeping Bayer intact.
But it was Henry Ford's tax-avoidance strategy two decades earlier that first established the dual-class structure.
Ford declined to comment, but referred to a previously issued statement in response to a shareholder proposal to eliminate the dual-class structure.
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Can you name any company where a dual-CEO structure has worked?
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The dual-layer structure used up to now has been augmented with an additional layer where image data can be recorded to create a new triple-layer structure.
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However, day-to-day dilution from routine equity-based employee compensation and other possible dilution, such as stock-based acquisitions, will likely undermine this dual-class structure and our aspirations for Google over the very long term.
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As my colleague Eric Savitz notes, Workday has a dual-class stock structure.
There are even big gaps in what we might see as the most egalitarian structure, dual-income couples.
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The dual-class share structure at News Corp gives a strong power base to Rupert Murdoch and his close allies.
's dual-class share structure, which allows CEO Murdoch to control the company through the 40 percent of voting shares he controls through a family trust.
The family answers to no one, running the company as if it were private, thanks to a dual-class stock structure that was set up when the company went public in 1969.
The company is out raising money again, and Mr. Goldberg said his investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, support creating a new dual-class voting structure that gives him control after the round closes as long as he stays CEO.
Workday has a dual-class stock structure.
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