Like or dislike: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg could be bound for a career in politics

Mark Zuckerberg may intend to pursue government service while retaining control of Facebook, according to recently unsealed court filings in a case pitting the CEO against minority investors.

The class-action lawsuit was first filed in late April, after Zuckerberg proposed a corporate shake-up that would dilute the voting power of shareholders – giving him “eternal control” of the company, in the words of the shareholders’ lawyers.

Text messages excerpted in the court documents reveal that Zuckerberg and two board members discussed the CEO’s possible government service, and argued about how to present it to shareholders.

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, one of the company’s most prominent ­investors, texted Zuckerberg in March to say that the “biggest issue” of the corporate proposal was “how to define the gov’t ­service thing without freaking out shareholders that you are losing commitment”.

A few weeks later, as Andreessen spoke with two other members of a special committee, the investor continued texting with Zuckerberg about negotiations.

“I think the biggest remaining issue is still around the government service,” Andreessen wrote. He added that another of the committee members, former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, was “massively uncomfortable” with Zuckerberg “going off on leave with no involvement by the board and retaining control”.