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[–] 22 points 4 months ago (9 children)

I've never quite understood, is a shareholder just someone with stock in a company or is it a level above that?

If it's just stocks I theoretically own a few in Disney somewhere. It was a gift for being born.

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  • [–] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    You're one of many minor shareholders. They give you in theory some say in the company, with one vote per share, but in practice you're ignored. Then you have the major shareholders, owning millions in shares, and having some to big influence in the company. These are the people they invite to shareholder meetings. And then there is the special class of shareholders, think of Musk and Zuckerberg, that own now billions in shares that give them 10 votes per share for example so nobody can outvote them.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I never understood how special shares were legal. I mean, I do understand that it's because the ownership class wants it that way, but it's insane.

    It's literally letting people have their cake of controlling a company while eating it by selling the company off simultaneously.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Yes, a shareholder is one who owns stocks. But you can say there's another tier, if you own say 10% of a company's stock you may actually get to influence how the company runs. That is called the board of directors. They decide what path the company goes down, the CEO, etc. (Technically it's the shareholders that decide, but your 1 millionth voting power isn't doing anything when your local billionaire has a billion dollars more stock than you.)

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    Yes, a shareholder is someone who owns part of the company, which is what stocks/shares are.

    There are different stock types, though. Common stock is what everyone thinks of when they hear stocks/shared. You own a portion of the company and can vote on stuff, and maybe get some dividends.

    Then there are preferred stocks which are basically a hybrid stock/bond with a fixed regular dividend. They also get first claim to the company assets if it goes under, but they usually don't have voting rights. Then there are subtypes of preferred stocks.

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