Question

Why do so many technology and media companies employ dual classes of stock and why is the practice controversial and disliked by investors?

Answer 1

Dual class stock means providing different type of stocks with assignment of class so that one class of share is superior to another in terms of the voting rights

the superior class of shares are generally held by promoters of the company, and this media companies uses dual-class share because they want their control in the hands of the promoter and they could be highly biased in the reporting and they could not be controlled by independent authorities as these media channels are highly political mouthpiece and they often get a lot of money for manipulation of the news so they want to keep the control in the hands of promoters so that there could not be any independent authority to decide upon its regulation among board of directors.

this practice is highly discriminatory in nature and it is not liked by the shareholders because they want to own shares of such companies which are highly transparent and which follows the disclosure requirements and equity principal as well.