Klarna Shareholders Toss Director Overboard Amid Founder Feuding
Shareholders of Klarna ousted a board member closely affiliated with one of its feuding founders in advance of its IPO.

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One Stockholm boardroom has had enough drama lately to fill an eight-episode season of Nordic noir on Netflix.
The metaphorical knives were out at “buy now, pay later” giant Klarna Thursday. Shareholders of the privately-held Swedish firm ousted a board member closely affiliated with one of its feuding founders in advance of one of the New York Stock Exchange’s most hotly anticipated IPOs.
Melodrama on Lake Mälaren
Two of Klarna’s three co-founders, Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Victor Jacobsson, really don’t get along. Siemiatkowski remains CEO of the company, which was founded in 2005, while Jacobsson left in 2012. But he’s hung on as an investor, and has used his “right of first refusal” to build up a reportedly 8% stake in the company through special vehicles. As we mentioned, these guys don’t like each other.
Enter Mikael Walther — until yesterday, a board member and Jacobsson’s chief envoy at the company’s upper echelons. Earlier this month, Klarna’s board voted to oust him, leading to Thursday’s shareholder vote to approve the decision. Bloomberg News reported at the time of the board vote that Walther alleged his expulsion was retaliation for calling out a bonus package that, according to him, could net Siemiatkowski up to $35 billion. Klarna Chairman Mike Moritz shot back that Walther’s alleged conduct — apparently holding up or vetoing key decisions — was investigated by a law firm, and that the board lost faith in him. Thursday’s vote was a resounding loss for the purported troublemaker:
- Walther was removed with approval from 87% of shareholders, Klarna said in a terse statement. “As a result, there will be one fewer independent voice in the boardroom,” Walther argued.
- Siemiatkowski and Jacobsson have clashed over the terms of a planned IPO, which could seek a valuation of roughly $20 billion, but now the CEO has consolidated power before the offering, whose beneficiaries will include investors BlackRock, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, and SoftBank.
Undeterred: Despite the boardroom fisticuffs, Klarna saw revenue surge 27% in the first half of the year to $1.2 billion, and losses turned to profits after the company slashed its workforce and filled the gap with AI tools. Earlier this month, it also reached a deal to offload most of its “buy now, pay later” loans in the UK to American hedge fund Elliott, freeing up $39 billion in funds.