Shopify Inc. CEO and founder Tobi Lutke, along with company executives, rings the NYSE Opening Bell(R) in celebration of Shopify's IPO (Photo: Business Wire)
By Drew Hasselback and Barbara Shecter
Ottawa-tech darling Shopify Inc. has filed papers for a $100-million IPO in Toronto and New York in which the public will be offered Class A shares that come with one vote per share, while company founders and insiders will receive Class B shares, which come with 10 votes a share.
These names add to a growing list. Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Groupon Inc. — all came to market with dual class shares, and they’ve succeeded in the face of long-standing opposition on the part of corporate democracy advocates for whom dual-class shares are a no-no.
A recent Clarkson Centre study found that Canada’s 23 largest publicly traded but family-controlled firms outperformed their peers on the TSX Index over the past 20 years.
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