The three Meta directors negotiating with CEO Mark Zuckerberg drew up a plan in early September that included quitting the board if he refused to compromise, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Zuckerberg wanted a pay package heavy on stock and insisted that Meta’s planned non-voting share class not dilute his control, while telling directors he might sell a big block of stock and leave California over a proposed billionaire wealth tax. The two sides settled in mid-September, when he agreed to keep living in California for eight years in return for the right to sell some of the new shares without losing votes. Meta wants that new stock to help pay for its AI buildout, which pushed free cash flow to negative $2.12B in the third quarter for the first time since 2012.
