SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google shareholders have approved an unconventional stock split that will ensure that the company's co-founders remain in control.
The plan passed Thursday at Google's annual shareholder meeting calls for the creation of a new class of non-voting stock.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who started Google in 1998, wanted the non-voting stock to prevent the possibility of their authority from being undermined as the company issues more shares to compensate employees and finance future acquisitions.
Thursday's approval was a foregone conclusion because Page and Brin already control more than 56 percent of the voting power at Google.
But Google Inc. doesn't expect the split to occur until late this year because of a shareholder lawsuit seeking to block the move.