The shareholder agreement lays out the rules of the relationship between the shareholders of a company. Most often the agreement is poorly written because the legal team fails to understand the business aspect of each of the respective sections. One of these sections is referred to as the Article of Capitalization or commonly called the Capitalization Clause.
Preferred stock is a non voting certificate of equity in a corporation’s hierarchy of purchased ownership. It is generally assigned a right to an annual interest rate in exchange for no voting privileges, thus the title ‘Preferred Stock’.
The one single term mostly equated to capitalism is ‘Stock’. When a business is incorporated, stock is the core medium of exchange for the investment. The company issues a certificate referred to as stock in exchange for the investment – most often cash. This is the one true form of pure risk. Most other forms of investments generally have some form of collateral, credit, or cash flow to substantiate the investment.
A document indicating ownership in a corporation is often referred to as common stock. It identifies an equity position in a business. The document or certificate is commonly referred to as a security and provides certain rights to the holder (owner). These rights include voting and residual value upon liquidation of the company.