History Main / MajorityShareDictator

* In ''VideoGame/OffworldTradingCompany'' your end goal is to make enough money to buy out your competitors, in blocks of 10%. You can also buy up to 50% of your own company's shares to make it more difficult for competitors to buy you out, after buying the outstanding 50% you need to buy the other half all at once in a hostile takeover.

* Averted in ''Film/IronMan1''. While Tony has the controlling share in Stark Industries, Obadiah points out that the board still has rights and was able to file an injunction against Tony when he shut down the company's weapons program.

** The plot of videogame starts when the Professor sells Planet Express to [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mom]], as it had been losing money for years due to mismanagement. The buyout gives Mom ownership of more than fifty percent of Earth, allowing her to become the supreme ruler of Earth. She then enslaves humanity and starts converting Earth into a giant warship.

In fiction, however, things are often enough simplified and owning [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlling_interest controlling interest]] in a company always endows you with godlike power over the organization, making your demands unquestionable and decisions final. So if a character wants to take complete control of a corporation--to [[GoodRunningEvil change its]] [[EvilRunningGood allegiances]], to [[{{Greed}} amass personal wealth]], to use it to [[OneNationUnderCopyright take over a country]] or even [[TakeOverTheWorld the whole world]], or just [[ForTheEvulz for the glory of it]]--all they need to do is acquire a slight majority of its stock. This majority is almost always stated to be 51% of the voting stock, but the trope still applies if the exact percent is unspecified but still grants the same power as having 100%.

In RealLife, owning the majority of a company's stock does not necessarily give you absolute power over it. If you own 51% of shares, that still leaves 49% to other stockholders who are still partial ''owners'' of the company and (depending on the country's legislation) retain certain rights -- such as appointing people to the board of directors that makes decisions for the company, including appointing a CEO who makes decisions, etc. etc.

In RealLife, owning the majority of a company's stock does not give you absolute power over it. If you own 51% of shares, that still leaves 49% to other stockholders who are still partial ''owners'' of the company and retain certain rights -- such as appointing people to the board of directors that makes decisions for the company, including appointing a CEO who makes decisions, etc. etc.

In fiction, however, owning [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlling_interest controlling interest]] in a company endows you with godlike power over the organization, making your demands unquestionable and decisions final. So if a character wants to take complete control of a corporation--to [[GoodRunningEvil change its]] [[EvilRunningGood allegiances]], to [[{{Greed}} amass personal wealth]], to use it to [[OneNationUnderCopyright take over a country]] or even [[TakeOverTheWorld the whole world]], or just [[ForTheEvulz for the glory of it]]--all they need to do is acquire a slight majority of its stock. This majority is almost always stated to be 51% of the voting stock, but the trope still applies if the exact percent is unspecified but still grants the same power as having 100%.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode "The Ziff Who Came To Dinner" plays with this. Artie Ziff, having absolutely nothing else to his name (because his company collapsed as a result of problems including the dot-com bubble bursting, reducing him to HouseSquatting in secret in the Simpsons' attic for months), bets the company stock he owns in a poker game, which Homer wins. Then at that moment the IRS barge into the Simpson house looking for the CEO of Ziff Co... which at the time technically is Homer. He ends up being taken away with Artie (the man who actually founded the company, led it, and then ran it into the ground) remaining untouched.