Klarna, the Stockholm-based buy-now-pay-later outfit that’s barreling toward an IPO, isn’t done shaking up its board.
According to the FT, seven directors just agreed to oust investor Mikael Walther from Klarna’s eight-person board, nearly eight years after he joined it. Walther is a confidante of Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson, who remains a major shareholder and, reportedly, a nuisance to co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who has led the company as CEO for nearly 20 years, whereas Jacobsson moved on in 2012.
It’s the second time Klarna’s board has changed in dramatic fashion this year. Soon after joining the board in January, Matt Miller, a Sequoia Capital investor, was said to advocate for the removal of famed VC Michael Moritz, who wrote Klarna’s first check on Sequoia’s behalf in 2010, remains Klarna’s chair despite retiring from Sequoia last year, and who Miller clashed with almost immediately.
Roughly six weeks later – following a war waged in the press – Sequoia apologized, pulled back Miller, and installed a third partner, Andrew Reed, who continues to represent the firm.