A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any

stockholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

s' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majority of the voting shares, other present circumstances can be considered to determine whether that party is still considered to hold a controlling ownership interest. In the United States,

Delaware corporation The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most im ...

s have a 2/3 vote requirement for a motion to pass. In theory, this could mean that a controlling interest would have to be over two-thirds of the voting shares. A 2019 study published in the

Virginia Law Review The ''Virginia Law Review'' is a law review edited and published by students at University of Virginia School of Law. It was established on March 15, 1913, and permanently organized later that year. The stated objective of the ''Virginia Law Revie ...

said dual-class stock structures, common to newly public technology companies, creates governance risks and costs, including the potential loss of

economic value In economics, economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent. It is generally measured through units of currency, and the interpretation is therefore "what is the maximum amount of money a speci ...

for non-voting shares held by public investors.

References

Shareholders {{accounting-stub

See also

References