Sequoia Capital, the US technology investment house, has abandoned its campaign to oust Sir Michael Moritz from the chairmanship of Klarna, the fast-growing credit group.
The abrupt U-turn came with no explanation. Sequoia had previously lobbied other Klarna shareholders for an extraordinary meeting to kick out billionaire Moritz, a former Sequoia partner.
“Upon a fuller assessment, we’ve withdrawn our EGM request,” it said. “We fully support Michael as chairman of Klarna.”
Instead, it is Matthew Miller, Sequoia’s co-head in Europe, who is stepping down from the board. Sequoia will appoint a new nominee in due course.
Miller had previously led the charge against Moritz, arguing that “a series of governance changes need to be made to set the company up for its future”.
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Sequoia, which owns 22 per cent of the “buy now, pay later” lender, has been a long-time investor in Klarna and installed Moritz as a director in 2010. He was elevated to chairman in 2020.
Moritz, 69, a technology investor and philanthropist whose net worth has been estimated at $5.7 billion by Forbes magazine, is a prominent figure in the technology world, having spearheaded investments in Google and PayPal. He stepped down from Sequoia last year but stayed on at Klarna as independent chairman.
The boardroom infighting comes amid speculation that the privately owned Klarna could seek a stockmarket listing, probably on Wall Street, within the next few months.
Sequoia said on Wednesday: “As we have already stated, we’re excited to continue to back Sebastian [Siemiatkowski, the founder and chief executive] and Klarna on their path to IPO and beyond.”
The Sweden-based group has mushroomed in recent years on the back of its “buy now, pay later” formula, in which merchants are able to offer free credit for a few weeks to their customers in return for paying a fee to Klarna of about 2 to 6 per cent of the purchase price. It has signed up 150 million users worldwide and 500,000 merchants in 45 countries.
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Its other investors include SoftBank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Wellcome Trust, Permira, Silver Lake, the London-listed Chrysalis Investments and GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund.
