Shareholder Rights |
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Although owning 51% of shares does mean that you own 51% of the company and that you have 51% of the votes, the company is considered a legal person, thus it owns all its assets, (buildings, equipment, materials etc) itself. A shareholder has no right to these without the company's permission, even if that shareholder owns almost all the shares. This is important in areas such as insurance, which must be in the name of the company not the main shareholder.
In most countries, including the United States, boards of directors and company managers have a fiduciary responsibility to run the company in the interests of its stockholders. Nonetheless, as Martin Whitman writes, "...it can safely be stated that there does not exist any publicly traded company where management works exclusively in the best interests of OPMI [Outside Passive Minority Investor] stockholders." Instead, there are both "communities of interest" and "conflicts of interest" between stockholders and management. "It would be naive to think that any management would forego management compensation, and management entrenchment, just because some of these management privileges might be perceived as giving rise to a conflict of interest with OPMIs."
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