Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
How true is this?
Is this for all global jurisdictions?
If a corporation has company bylaws that say they will prioritize environmental concerns, or employee safety, ... does shareholder interests override company bylaws?
I was just curious, so did a quick google.
|
My guess is that some variation of this is true globally. However, companies are also supposed to follow environmental and employee safety regulation. If a company wants to go above an beyond what is required for the law, they simply have to claim in good faith that taking care of the environment and employees are in the interest of the company. For example to justify charitable giving, a company just have to say that it improves the company's reputation etc. If certain bylaws make a company a more attractive investment, then those bylaws are in accordance with fiduciary duty.
I don't know the actual legal issues of if fiduciary duty conflicts with bylaws, but I doubt it comes up much, if at all. Also the main measurement is long term shareholder value, not profit. In the specific case of Amazon, they have lost billions of dollars on Alexa, but the traditional side of Amazon is profitable and the investors have confidence in the potential for the monopolistic profits in the distant future. I don't know if Kindle or Audible make money, but I guess they do.