Big Technologies boardroom battle intensifies after director ousted
A fierce battle between the founder of Big Technologies and its board has gathered pace after one of the directors was voted out by shareholders.
Founder Sara Murray, who was herself ousted from the board last year following accusations of fraud and forged documents, had voted to remove all four directors who were up for re-election at the company’s AGM in the City on Tuesday.
Despite the efforts of Murray and a number of vocal supporters at the AGM, three in four directors were re-elected with around 60 per cent shareholder approval, the company confirmed on Tuesday. But one non-executive director, Camilla Macun, was voted down with a majority of 55 per cent, a result which Murray told Morning Wire was “great news.”
“The huge disquiet of shareholders, shown in the results, makes clear it is time for the board to bring an end to this irrational strategy or to be replaced,” Murray said.
In an unprecedented move in defiance of Murray’s campaign to topple the board, the company has published a separate set of AGM voting results which showed what the votes would have been had Murray not participated.
The separate results showed a 72 per cent majority in favour of re-election for Macun, while all other resolutions would have passed with a more than 90 per cent majority without Murray’s votes, which the board said “demonstrates the underlying support from other shareholders”.
Murray has hit back at the move. “I do not understand the pointless and irrelevant presentation of results excluding my votes as I am the founder and own 25 per cent of the company and the board needs to start dealing with this reality,” Murray said.
“It is time to return this business to being the brilliant company I founded and built.”
‘Some of us are on McDonald’s wages’
The voting results follow a dramatic AGM which saw heated exchanges between Murray, Big’s board and a number of shareholders over the actions of the company since Murray was removed last year.
Murray interrogated the board’s growth strategy and accused it of wasting £2m per month on legal fees over its decision to remove her, a move which culminated in a £39m settlement to former shareholders of the company.
Big’s chair, Sangita Shah, rejected Murray’s characterisation of the firm’s spending on legal fees.
“Some of us are on McDonald’s wages, which is what we are to reduce the legal cost because we want to reduce it,” she said.
“We do not want to take action – the only action we are taking…is to try to preserve the position of the company for all its shareholders.”
Legal dispute causes chaos
Murray was dismissed from Big Technologies in March last year after the firm accused her of concealing her beneficial ownership in the business, as well as forging documents relating to a share restructure which took place prior to the company’s IPO in 2021.
Big’s board said it asked Murray on multiple occasions whether there was a connection between her and a series of offshore trusts which together controlled around two-fifths of the company’s share capital prior to the AIM flotation.
“Ms Murray denied any connection at any time prior to her dismissal, and it was not declared to the Takeover Panel or in the AIM Admission Document at the time of the IPO,” Big said in a statement.
Murray denies that she had control over the offshore vehicles.
“I don’t own or control any of those companies. I’ve never said I’m not connected to them, I do have connections to them,” She told Morning Wire.
She has denied forging documents, referring to the accusation as “a whole heap of false allegations by the company against me.”
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