03:51 PM EDT, 04/30/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with additional details and Laster's quotes in third to sixth paragraphs)

Meta Platforms ( META ) won a victory Tuesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery when Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster dismissed a complaint from a shareholder activist that claimed that the company's pursuit of profits jeopardized public safety, social well-being, and its stockholders' diversified portfolios.

The complaint failed to make a compelling case for changing Delaware and US corporate laws to operate on the assumption that a corporation's stockholders are diversified, according to Laster.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was also a defendant in the case against the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

"The plaintiff is simply wrong that the defendants acted improperly by seeking to promote Meta's value for the benefit of its common stockholders in their firm-specific capacities as long-term investors in Meta," Laster said. "The plaintiff is also wrong that the defendants' concentrated positions in Meta created any conflict."

Laster sided with the defendants' argument that Meta is managed not under a diversified-investor model but a firm-specific model as required under Delaware law.

"It is not reasonably conceivable that Delaware corporate law currently operates on a diversified-investor model," Laster said. "Nor does this court have the freedom to adopt it, even assuming the concept was sound."

Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately reply to MT Newswires' request for comment.

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