Say someone wants to buy Loopt for $20MM...
Can Sam go back to the investors and say, "Here's your money back plus x, I'm doing it" since he has the majority ownership? Can you structure a deal such as long as they get the investment back, you can sell at whatever price you want?
(
4 comments
| 3 points
| on HN
)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38560
the short answer is no, because funding deals almost invariably include a veto over acquisitions, regardless of who has what percent of the stock. There may also be a liquidation preference that says the investors get n times their money back first in any sale.
The slightly longer answer is that it's not that simple, because if you really want to sell and you're essential to the company, you can in effect threaten to go on strike if they exercise their veto, and then you'll all end up with less. As long as founders are essential to the company, they have a lot of power. So in practice they may be able to talk investors out of exercising their veto (though not their liquidation preference).