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Comment by baking | Hacker News Reader

He went from controlling three seats on a six-member board to having one seat "as CEO" of a seven-member board looking to add even more independent members. Also, he can't pull the "the board can fire me at any time" card with a straight face anymore. He kept his job, but he didn't win by any stretch. There is a good chance he will move on to another role.

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He went from being fired after failing to convince the board to remove one of his opponents to being on a board that unanimously backs his return with his opponents all removed, because the majority of staff demonstrated unquestioning loyalty to him. Hard to spin that as anything other than a win.

The only slight downside is his position is evidently dependent on Microsoft's patronage, but I'd rather have one seat in seven and an alternative offer and the ability to threaten to take most of the company with me for the alternative offer than one seat in six with a board that believed they could oust me if they didn't like my decisions.

Having employees leave for Microsoft is the least of the board's worries.

The current members are almost all from for-profit backgrounds, they are on Sams side here.

I don't think you understand the concept of governance. This is not Tesla's board.

Any case similar to this? What kind of boards you find to be more fitting for the case of OpenAI? It may not be Tesla but you’re probably drawing another reference from history, right?

It is hard to think of a case of a public charity that owns a controlling interest in a for-profit subsidiary and that is all they do. The Morman church owns a lot of businesses, but it is still the Morman Church.

Note that in the US, private foundations are not permitted to own a controlling interest in a for-profit company, so the example has to be a public charity. IKEA is controlled by a Dutch nonprofit foundation, but it has no obligation to the public except to give away a small portion of the profits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation

https://www.economist.com/business/2006/05/11/flat-pack-acco...

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