Voting. You get to do it if you own common stock. And the votes are kind of unitary, meaning that you basically get one "say" in things, which comes in the form of electing the board of directors. It's the common, not the preferred or the bondholders or big vendors or partners who elect the board, nor is it dead people in Chicago.
Yes, there are proxy votes with major initiatives that common shareholders vote on. But usually, the board aligns one way or another with those votes, and shareholders just line up behind them like lemmings to a slaughter, and vote whichever way the board tells them to vote.
Some companies have super-voting stock, shares which carry multiple votes per share, but also have the identical economic ownership stake in the company.
See: Super-Voting Stock if you care.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is non-voting stock?4 Views
finance a la shmoop- what is non-voting stock? hmm well it's stock that doesn't
vote. bet you're shocked to hear that. most people need a PhD in finance to [stock wears an "I didn't vote" sticker.
understand that notion. but really that's it in most cases common stock carries
with it the right to vote. and in fact it's the common shareholders who elect
the board of directors. but every now and then a potentially hostile investor
comes along and buys or wants to buy a big chunk of stock in a company. well the
amount might be a block large enough to elect that potentially hostile investor
slate or the group of people that investor wants to place on the board to
represent her evil intentions .when that happens companies will often create a
class of common stock similar in every way to its normal common only with its [stock checklist of privileges listed]
voting rights stripped away .that way the investor can own an economic interest in
the company but not monkey with the board.
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