Smart Technologies said Monday that co-founders David Martin and Nancy Knowlton, pictured, have resigned from the company’s board of directors.Chris Bolin/The Globe and Mail
Smart Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SMT) (TSX:SMA), a developer of electronic white boards used for education and business applications, says co-founders David Martin and Nancy Knowlton have resigned from the board of directors – triggering the end of the company's multiple-vote shares.
As a result, the largest group of votes is now held by funds advised by Apax partners, with 31.1 per cent. About 31 per cent of its shares were widely held as of Thursday, ahead of the holiday weekend.
Martin and Knowlton had 23.5 per cent of the class A voting shares after converting about 79,500 class B multiple-vote shares as of April 17, the effective day of their resignation, and semiconductor giant Intel Corp., had 14.4 per cent.
Martin has been replaced as chairman of the company's board by Robert Hagerty, who has been a director of Smart Technologies since July 2010.
Smart Technologies became a publicly traded company amid high expectations on July 15, 2010, when its stock opened at C$18.25 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It has rarely matched that value since then and the A shares closed Thursday at $4.91, up from $1.39 a year earlier.