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"The structure, which Kamprad established in the 1980s, assures that the Almhult, Sweden-based company stays outside the family’s direct control." "His wealth will now be dissipated " "Kamprad was not interested in money" Does anyone care about money less than Billionaires?
Never thought I’d quote Jay-Z on HN.
EDIT: It was Kanye. Thanks companycalls for pointing that out.
So, who ultimately appoints the directors? It sounds like it is Kamprad's heirs, but through some layers of indirection that prevents them from meddling directly.
There have been many inquires into this by Swedish journalists over the years, but it's a very dense structure of companies with unclear ownership and structure. So who controls it is unknown. It is also a great tax evasion schema since the ownership is a charity (that donates money to "product design"), allowing IKEA to escape vast sums of taxation globally.
Warning: article contains auto-playing video.
Its an easy fix you can set auto-play false on your browser. At least its easy in Firefox, not sure about Chrome/Edge
My understanding is that the Ikea corporate structure is much, much more complicated than this article even hints at, and in fact it is owned by so many different parties with different interests that go far beyond what is suggested here. Additionally, I think the Dutch are now the main owners of the main portions of the company that most associate with the name Ikea, as of a few years ago.
When I was young and getting my driving license in Madrid I had to take a bus to the place were exams were done, in the south of Madrid(Mostoles). A friend of mine worked on IKEA and he told me that it was a lot of expectation as the founder had gone to Spain and it was taking the same bus that I took in order to visit the stores in Spain. It was surprising to me that someone owning billions will take the bus, while…
He also tried to have his hair cut when visiting a cheap country. Maybe he did it in Spain...
"The structure, which Kamprad established in the 1980s, assures that the Almhult, Sweden-based company stays outside the family’s direct control." "His wealth will now be dissipated " "Kamprad was not interested in money" Does anyone care about money less than Billionaires?
In the wise words of Jay-Z, “having money ain’t everything but not having it is.” Never thought I’d quote Jay-Z on HN. EDIT: It was Kanye. Thanks companycalls for pointing that out. https://genius.com/Kanye-west-good-life-lyrics#note-945345
So, who ultimately appoints the directors? It sounds like it is Kamprad's heirs, but through some layers of indirection that prevents them from meddling directly.
There have been many inquires into this by Swedish journalists over the years, but it's a very dense structure of companies with unclear ownership and structure. So who controls it is unknown. It is also a great tax evasion schema since the ownership is a charity (that donates money to "product design"), allowing IKEA to escape vast sums of taxation globally.
Also would you like to buy a cheap but functional home office desk?
My understanding is that the Ikea corporate structure is much, much more complicated than this article even hints at, and in fact it is owned by so many different parties with different interests that go far beyond what is suggested here. Additionally, I think the Dutch are now the main owners of the main portions of the company that most associate with the name Ikea, as of a few years ago.
As I understood it, it’s all heavily based on reducing tax liability as much as possible. E.g. each ikea store is a franchisee which operates at a loss and pays royalty fees for using the IKEA brand, and of course pays out for products and other vital services to probably hundreds of other ikea-related companies. And that’s even before dipping your toes into their manufacturing world.