A shareholder or stockholder is an
individual or
company (including a
corporation) that legally owns one or more
shares of
stock in a
joint stock company. A company's shareholders collectively own that company. Thus, such companies strive to enhance
shareholder value.Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote (usually one vote per share owned, but sometimes this is not the case) on matters such as elections to the
board of directors, the right to propose
shareholder resolutions, the right to share in distributions of the company's income, the right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and the right to a company's assets during a
liquidation of the company. However, stockholder's rights to a company's assets are subordinate to the rights of the company's creditors. This means that stockholders typically receive nothing if a company is liquidated after
bankruptcy (if the company had had enough to pay its creditors, it would not have entered bankruptcy), although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured.
See more at Wikipedia.org...