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Comment by kayge | Hacker News Reader

Potentially dumb question: once you own a certain percentage of public stock of a company, do they start contacting you for board meetings or decision-making of any kind? I think I understand your comment, but I'm curious what real-world examples of this look like.

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Yes, every voting share (most shares are voting shares but there are some exceptions) is worth 1 vote, and you receive invitations to the shareholder meetings if you have even 1.

> Potentially dumb question: once you own a certain percentage of public stock of a company, do they start contacting you for board meetings or decision-making of any kind?

Well, most decisions are outsourced to the board members, who's membership is the main thing shareholders vote on.

Mandatory reporting kicks in at 5 percent ownership. At 10 percent, the SEC considers you an insider[1]. Before that, I doubt board members even know you exist unless you talk to them first (and they aren't taking your calls or mine).

[1]: https://www.sec.gov/smallbusiness/goingpublic/officersanddir...

Indeed, the sec and the company probably want to know about you, hence the 13D. There's also a bit where you can only hold a certain portion of a bank before being designated a bank-holding company.

I don't know what scrutiny that brings, but Warren Buffett has been careful not to get Berkshire Hathaway designated it. I believe the limit is/was 10%, but then you could ask the Federal Reserve for a higher limit, which they did because of Bank of America or Wells Fargo I believe? I don't know a tremendous amount about it, but from what Buffett was describing, it wasn't the fed asking them about their bank holdings, they were asking the bank about them.

Shareholder power is diffuse, a lot like voting for your congressman is. If you hold over 50% of the vote there are more tools available but then your getting lawyers involved. Sometimes corporations are organized in such a way that even 50% doesn't give you effective direct control without very unpleasant side effects (e.g. poison pills).

Common stock shareholders generally have some voting rights, e.g. for electing board members.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/040315/what-can-sha...

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