Mark of one man on public Facebook

 Since the moment he dropped out of Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg has stayed remarkably focused on two things: Facebook, and being the boss of Facebook.

Early on he was convinced of the vast potential of the social network he built in his dorm room, say friends, investors and detractors. He pushed his team to be fast and take risks. He resisted efforts to change the way Facebook looked and worked, even if, in the beginning, it meant giving up revenue.

Most important, he arranged the ownership of Facebook so as to give himself extraordinary power to steer the company. By the time Facebook filed for a $US5 billion public offering Wednesday, Zuckerberg had managed to hold on to more than a quarter of the shares in the company, and his agreements with other investors enhanced his voting power to almost 60 per cent of total shares.

That's a greater measure of control than Bill Gates had at Microsoft when it went public in 1986 (49 per cent), and far greater than the co-founders of Google had in 2004 (16 per cent each). Typically, say Silicon Valley veterans, a first-time entrepreneur gets to the public market with a far smaller stake in his or her creation. Zuckerberg's arrangement leaves little room for investors to have much input on the company's direction.

Zuckerberg's success is an object lesson in what works in the crowded, competitive Silicon Valley: remain in charge, stave off potential predators and expand the company so quickly that no one can challenge the boss.

"He always knew before the rest of us what Facebook could be," said Paul Madera, managing director at Meritech Capital Partners, who invested in the company in 2005. "Mark's vision on the purity of the product really did benefit from his control and ownership. It wasn't subject to committee decisions. It was all Mark."

The power that Zuckerberg wields over the company has already drawn scrutiny. "You're willing to take someone's money but not willing to invite their participation," said Charles M. Elson, a professor of corporate governance at the University of Delaware. "It makes meaningless the notion of investor democracy."

Elsen added that Zuckerberg's arrangement is similar to moves by founders of other technology companies, including Google, to create special classes of stock that grant them extra voting power.

Facebook declined to make executives available for interviews before the offering.

The focus on staying in charge began early. Sean Parker, one of Zuckerberg's first and most important advisers, helped him with that. Parker had learnt a hard lesson himself about losing control: he was ousted by the backers of a company he founded, an online address book called Plaxo. Parker helped ensure that would never happen to Zuckerberg.