(Bloomberg) -- Klarna shareholders voted to oust one of the company’s board members in the latest sign of simmering tension at the highest ranks of the financial technology behemoth.
Mikael Walther was removed from the board during a meeting of the company’s investors on Thursday, according to a statement on Klarna’s website. The move was approved by 87% of voting shareholders, the company said.
“A majority of those present at the general meeting have decided that I shall leave the board,” Walther said in a separate statement. “As a result, there will be one fewer independent voice in the boardroom.”
The move comes weeks after Walther’s fellow board members had voted to oust him. Walther urged investors to vote against the board’s decision, which he said had come after he challenged governance decisions including a bonus plan that he claimed could hand Klarna Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Siemiatkowski as much as $35 billion in the coming years.
Klarna Chairman Mike Moritz said the board’s vote followed an investigation into Walther’s alleged conduct by the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP. The board lost confidence in Walther after he threatened to veto certain items or stall important decisions, including one to set up a new UK-based holding company, Moritz said in a letter to investors in recent weeks.
Walther has long represented the interests of Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson on the board.
The vote to oust Walther comes after the company rejiggered its board earlier this year, replacing Sequoia Capital’s Matthew Miller after he unsuccessfully called for the removal of Moritz. Behind the scenes of that public flip-flop were Siemiatkowski and Jacobsson, two estranged co-founders that continue to clash on key governance decisions.
Investors have been closely watching the boardroom drama ahead of Klarna’s potential initial public offering that’s expected to take place next year. Despite the turbulence, Klarna has been steadily making preparations for the debut and has considered seeking a valuation of around $20 billion in the offering, Bloomberg previously reported.
Klarna recently struck a deal to offload buy-now, pay-later loans that it originates in the UK over the coming years as it looks for ways to free up capital ahead of that public debut. The deal with a subsidiary of the hedge fund Elliott Investment Management will give Klarna £30 billion of fresh firepower over the coming years as it looks to grow its business around the world.
In August, the company said revenue jumped 27% in the first half of this year, buoying adjusted profit. The results were also helped by the fact that Klarna kept a lid on operating expenses as it continued to invest in artificial intelligence.
--With assistance from Paige Smith.
(Updates with Klarna’s latest earnings in final paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the day of the week in first deck headline and the company also corrected an earlier statement to show majority approval was among shareholders who voted.)
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