The Big Technologies boardroom battle escalated sharply on Tuesday after shareholders voted to remove non-executive director Camilla Macun at the company’s annual general meeting in the City, handing founder Sara Murray a partial victory in her campaign to overhaul the board.
Macun was voted down by a majority of 55 per cent. Three other directors up for re-election survived, each returning with roughly 60 per cent approval, Big Technologies confirmed.
Murray Claims Vindication as Big Technologies Boardroom Battle Deepens
Murray, who holds 25 per cent of the company and was herself removed from the board last year following accusations of fraud and forged documents, had called for all four directors to be ousted. She described the outcome as ‘great news.’
‘The huge disquiet of shareholders, shown in the results, makes clear it is time for the board to bring an end to this irrational strategy or to be replaced,’ Murray said.
According to The Times, Murray also backed a move to oust the company’s chairman at the AGM, and her preferred candidate is now joining the board.
The board responded by publishing a separate set of voting results showing what outcomes would have been without Murray’s participation. On that basis, Macun would have secured a 72 per cent majority, while all other resolutions would have passed with more than 90 per cent support. The board said the figures ‘demonstrate the underlying support from other shareholders.’
Murray rejected the exercise. ‘I do not understand the pointless and irrelevant presentation of results excluding my votes as I am the founder and own 25 per cent of the company and the board needs to start dealing with this reality,’ she said. ‘It is time to return this business to being the brilliant company I founded and built.’
Settlement Costs and Cash Position Under Scrutiny
The AGM saw heated exchanges over the company’s legal spending. Murray accused the board of wasting £2m per month on legal fees since her removal, a decision she said had culminated in a substantial settlement with former shareholders.
The settlement, which resolved litigation brought by five former shareholders of Buddi Ltd following Murray’s £12.3m management buyout of Buddi in 2018, totalled £38.5m as a full and final settlement of the Buddi litigation. An initial payment of £31.5m was made, with the remaining £7m payable subsequently. The snippet reference to £39m is a rounded figure; the announced total was £38.5m per the company’s own regulatory notice.
Big Technologies reported net cash of £93.9m at 31 December 2024, up from £85.9m a year earlier. After the initial £31.5m settlement payment, the company said it would have had cash balances of £61.9m as at 31 December 2025.
Chair Sangita Shah rejected Murray’s characterisation of the firm’s legal expenditure. ‘Some of us are on McDonald’s wages, which is what we are to reduce the legal cost because we want to reduce it,’ Shah said. ‘We do not want to take action, the only action we are taking…is to try to preserve the position of the company for all its shareholders.’
The Buddi litigation stemmed from claims by the five former Buddi shareholders after Murray’s 2018 buyout of the business she founded.
Forgery Claims and an Approaching Court Date
The legal conflict extends beyond the settled claim. Big Technologies has broadened its own action against Murray, alleging forgery and deliberate falsification of documents including board minutes and emails, as well as claiming she provided untrue information to the company and improperly diverted ‘significant’ sums of money, according to a company announcement on Investegate.
Murray is due to provide her defence in the litigation on 25 June 2025, per an earlier Big Technologies regulatory update.
That hearing will be the next concrete test of whether the dispute between Murray and the board can be resolved through the courts, or whether the shareholder pressure visible at Tuesday’s AGM intensifies further before then.