Please please please stop repeating this meme. It’s not true, and it never has been. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-v...
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-co...
> State codes (including that of Delaware, the preeminent state for corporate law) similarly allow corporations to be formed for "any lawful business or purpose,” and the corporate charters of big public firms typically also define company purpose in these broad terms. And corporate case law describes directors as fiduciaries who owe duties not only to shareholders but also to the corporate entity itself, and instructs directors to use their powers in “the best interests of the company.”
> Serving shareholders’ “best interests” is not the same thing as either maximizing profits, or maximizing shareholder value.
[..]
> More to the point, corporate directors are protected from most interference when it comes to running their business by a doctrine known as the business judgment rule. It says, in brief, that so long as a board of directors is not tainted by personal conflicts of interest and makes a reasonable effort to stay informed, courts will not second-guess the board’s decisions about what is best for the company — even when those decisions predictably reduce profits or share price.
The founders and early investors got the shares with voting rights, plus non voting shares they could sell to cash in, while retaining their control of the company.
> A Summary of Alphabet's Class Structures
Class A: Held by a regular investor with regular voting rights (GOOGL)
Class B: Held by the founders, with 10 times the voting power of Class A shares
Class C: No voting rights, typically held by employees and some Class A stockholders (GOOG)