Delaware, we hardly knew ye.
Over the last few days, several big companies—Meta, Dropbox, Automattic, and others—have announced plans to “leave” Delaware and reincorporate in states with more favorable regulatory environments, like Texas and Nevada.
But did you know The Trade Desk was one of the first to make the move?
While this wasn’t widely covered as an adtech story last year, legal reporters took note. In November, The Trade Desk held a special shareholder meeting to vote on reincorporating in Nevada—a move that was ultimately approved.
At the time, Reuters reported that The Trade Desk cited “the increasingly litigious environment facing corporations with controlling stockholders” as a key reason for the switch, according to a proxy statement. (They’re referencing a few shareholder lawsuits targeting Jeff Green’s control.)
This weirdly (or inevitably?) ties back to Elon Musk, who reincorporated Tesla and SpaceX in Texas last year after a Delaware court famously rejected his $55 billion compensation package. In response, he urged companies to leave the state.
Why This Matters:
Will other adtech companies flee Delaware? Will Basis Technologies leave for Nevada? Will Magnite leave for Texas? Who knows, but it’s interesting to see this shift occurring.
Elon urging companies to leave Delaware is one thing, but Jeff Green making the move could have several publicly traded and private adtech companies rethinking Delaware.
Experts React:
Our Take:
Random thoughts: Delaware’s newly sworn-in governor has quite a challenge on his hands. What a situation to step into—yeesh. It’ll be interesting to see what steps he takes to stop the hemorrhaging. Business Insider has a great interview with him on this—see here:
Though he’s been in office for less than two weeks, Meyer said he has already met with “leading corporate legal brass” and state government leaders to chart a path forward.
“I think within the coming weeks you’re going to see some things rolled out that will help move our state forward and bring us into 2025 and beyond to make sure we’re protecting and growing the corporate franchise,” he said.
“It certainly beats going to Vegas and rolling the dice,” he added.
OK, good line! Give the man a chance.
