Controlling interest in a corporation means to have control of a large enough block of voting stock shares in a company such that no one stock holder or coalition of stock holders can successfully oppose a motion. In theory this could mean that controlling interest would be 33.4% or 50% of the voting shares plus one.
In practice, though, controlling interest can be far less than that, as it is rare that 100% of company voting shareholders actively vote. While most small corporations do not have a 2/3 vote requirement, in the opposite, most large companies especially Delaware corporations, do have a 2/3 vote requirement.
A company that requires a 2/3 super-majority of shares to vote in favor of a motion can grant, in effect, veto power to a minority shareholder or block of shareholders that own more than 1/3 of the shares. Thus in some cases a single entity can essentially maintain control with only 33.4% of the outstanding shares. Ford Motor Company's former 33.9% ownership of Mazda North American Operations is an example of a controlling interest with minority shareholding that was granted by Mazda.
Famous quotes containing the words controlling and/or interest:
“In controlling men:
If at first you don’t succeed,
Why, cry, cry, again.”
—Unknown. A Maxim Revised (l. 3–4)
“The yuppie idea of the future ain’t my idea of a future. Your safe car, and home, and job, and all the time rushing between the three—let’s make people feel they can grow up and have some education, some interest in life! That’s what counts!”
—Joe Strummer (b. 1952)