As an investor you have no way of obtaining that surety. So, you would not love this company.
> But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman
Dude they're retweeting heart emojis and carrying water in _the most disturbing_ fashion on twitter. They're 100% declaring that they're his personal army, ride or die. I don't know how you aren't seeing this. It's completely abnormal behaviour for adults.
To me it's the 100% committed 'vibe' they're giving off. It's weird. It's not how staff, especially technical/researchers (who usually bicker like anything over the most trivial of differences) behave.
Anyone who's managed a big research team knows that competing rivalries and internecine warfare is the order of the day. Literal slapfights have broken out over whether big or little endian encoding will be more efficient for any given scenario, for example.
Oh yeah I think Sam is sleazier than most people seem to think. I also don’t think he’s in the right because the board has been quiet. The whole thing is insular and one sided. Everything they’re doing/saying is to try and control the board. That is off-putting because it’s detrimental to the board’s intent. I’m sure they’re all very nice people and hard workers.
I don't know enough about Sam or the board at all, so curious as to reasons why he might be sleazy/sneaky.
The board being quiet, in my opinion, is not doing them any favors!
The board being quiet is adult behaviour. Release a discreet and generic press release then direct all further enquiries to the lawyers. That's how things should be done.
The frenzy of reporting and contradictory articles and froth and spin that's coming from the other side makes them look deranged, IMHO. It's incredibly childish and just makes it look like they have tentacles everywhere that they can drag these weird articles out of so many different outlets. It's not a good look unless you're really trying to look like HYDRA.
> Investors like success and returns but they don't like companies where all the employees have basically sworn out an oath of fealty to the CEO, as it means they (the investors) have basically no control over anything.
Investors love such companies. I, as an investor would love such a company, as long as I was sure that the CEO would stay. Investors tend to not have control over much of anything anyway unless they have a board seat. Other than that it's a shareholder meeting once per year where you get to sign off on the actions of the execs for the preceding year. But the better interpretation is that the people there have said "we are not loyal to the board" rather than that they are more loyal to Altman, that only goes for those that will follow him wherever he goes.
The best time for an investor to influence things is when you come on board. The best way for an investor to continue to be able to influence things is to have a controlling interest or very good relations with enough of the stockholders to effectively have a controlling interest.