Silicon Valley Vs. Wall Street: Can the New Long-Term Stock Exchange Disrupt Capitalism?

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Silicon Valley’s high-tech denizens complain the public stock markets are marred by a narrow focus on short-term earnings and profits. Now they are actually doing something about it, by launching a new framework for corporate governance, investing and trading called the Long-Term Stock Exchange.

Backed by top Valley figures such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, the LTSE says it plans to seek regulatory approval by the end of 2017 to become the newest US stock exchange. Its key feature: a system in which the voting power of shares increases the longer investors own them. Firms listed on the exchange would need to use such a structure, often called “tenure voting,” while abiding by numerous other rules, such as a ban on tying executive pay to the company’s short-term financial performance. If the LTSE succeeds, it could offer a new incentive for privately held tech giants such as Airbnb and Uber Technologies to go public, at a time when many market veterans and regulators fear the process of going public has lost its luster.


Silicon Valley Vs. Wall Street: Can the New Long-Term Stock Exchange Disrupt Capitalism?