Glossary

Dual-Class Shares

A share structure in which a company has issued two or more classes of common stock with the same claim on profits but different voting rights, typically a high-vote class held by founders and a one-vote or non-voting class that trades publicly. It lets a founder keep control while the company raises capital or pays for acquisitions and compensation in stock. Meta's Class A (one vote), Class B (ten votes) and, from January 2027, non-voting Class C shares are an example; Alphabet's GOOGL and GOOG are another.