Another high profile company going public has decided to maintain control while selling a majority of the economic stakes in the company to the public.   This time it is Al Gore as a founder of  Current Media.

I certainly agree, the company’s shareholders have a right to decide the control structure they want to have after a public offering.  At the end of the day, people can always choose not to be a party to it.  And the average investor (not the same as the average dollar invested) has little voice in the actions of a company.  But I still don’t like it.  I guess it comes down to creating value for all shareholders and when you remove options – and putting control in the hands of a few reduced options – you lower the value to the group as a whole.

In this case the interesting thing will be how Gore is viewed in this debate (not that I’m trying to pull Barak and Hillary into this).   In Al Gores Convenient IPO the comparision with Google focused on Gore’s holding public office and being a voice for many of the institutions who are currently fighting against these type of control structures.  I don’t think we should hold Gore or any other ex-public official to any higher standard than we hold each other.  And he should not try to tell us to do what he thinks is better for others unless he is willing to do that or more himself.