Dual Class Stock

See: Super-Voting Stock. See: Dual-Class Ownership.

The notion of a share of stock being financially equal, but having different control elements, is a common one in many very large corporations even today, as the original founding families believed, rightly or wrongly, that they had some epic and mythical mission to fulfill, and wanted to be sure that their own family controlled the company, more or less. Or at least had a voice in its operations, such that it would never become the love slave of an unwanted master.

Think: Comcast, The New York Times, Isis.com, etc.