Majority Shareholder

The founder never sold. The company has 100 million shares outstanding, and she still has the original 12-ish million shares she had when she started MemeMe.com. The second largest shareholder is Fidelity, with 7 million shares. Then there's a long tail of other investors who each own a smaller numbers of shares, each having fewer votes when it comes to electing the board.

With 12% of the outstanding shares and likely a bunch of friends who'd vote with her in a pinch (let's say that, altogether, that group comprises 30% of the total), she has major sway in the company's direction. In most public companies, less than half of all shares actually vote. So a 30% position usually comprises majority shareholder ownership, and the right to choose whether it'll be steak of fish this year at the company dinner.

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