Hawley Legal Resources, LLC
  • Home
  • Free EBook
  • Our Services
    • About The Cost of a Patent
    • What is Intellectual Property?
    • Client's Rights and Responsibilities
  • About Attorney Bertram
  • Protecting Your Assets ~ Blog
  • Contact Us

"Benefit Corporations" enable you to fund your conscience

1/20/2012

1 Comment

 
Many people start a business to monetize an idea -- provide a service or sell a product -- and maximize the returns.  Publicly-held companies are in fact accountable to their shareholders and may be liable if they make decisions that don't maximize returns.  Enter to "benefit corporation," a new form of corporation that grants the board of directors immunity from suits by shareholders if they justify that their decisions are "socially responsible" or fit into a pre-outlined list of beneficiaries.  Unlike a charity or non-profit, there are no tax exemptions, but it does allow corporations that choose to resist takeovers and other mergers that, while objectively profitable, may not be to the founders' or board of directors' preference. 

Notably, the infamously free-wheeling Ben & Jerry's ice cream company was purchased last year by Unilever;  the offer was "sweet" enough that failure to sell the company would likely generate a lawsuit by the public shareholders that they were denied a substantial profit for no good business reason.  And so a company that has a reputation for social activism and unconventional marketing is now owned and controlled by one of the largest consumer products corporations in the world.  Ben & Jerry's representatives assured reporters that this sale never would have happened had a benefit corporation been an option at the time. 
1 Comment
Candace Grant link
6/17/2023 02:41:48 am

Great share thanks for writing this

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Hawley Legal Resources, LLC

    Contemporary and interesting issues affecting small business.

    Archives

    February 2019
    September 2018
    October 2017
    May 2014
    July 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All
    Copyright
    Defamation
    Entrepreneurship
    Fashion
    Infringement
    Kirkbride
    Licensing
    Patents
    Politics
    Start Ups
    Start-ups
    Trademarks
    Work-made-for-hire

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.