History Main / MajorityShareDictator

->'''Earle''': What makes you think ''you'' can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?\\
'''Bruce Wayne''': Well, the fact that I'm the owner.\\
'''Earle''': What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.\\
'''Bruce''': And I bought most of the shares. Through various charitable foundations, trusts, and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that ''my'' company's future is secure.

* Endemic in ''Comicbook/IronMan''. The other shareholders in Stark Industries exist purely to fume impotently as Tony spends their money on his armour ... except on the occasions when someone ''else'' has a majority of the shares, and instantly gets the power to shut him down completely.

* In ''Film/{{Scrooge|1951}}'', Scrooge and Marley obtain their wealth by offering to cover the expenses of their owner's embezzlement scandal in return for the right to buy up to 51% of the company's shares. Naturally this gives them absolute power over the day-to-day business of the company.

* A benign version of this takes place over the course of Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/TheShipWhoSearched''. About a third of the way in, Hypatia Cade, a quadraplegic who has been turned into a brainship, is seen telling her stockbroker to invest some of her earnings into a cybernetics company that is apparently not very profitable. Way later, now owning a majority stake, she introduces herself as their new owner. She didn't want to do anything untoward, she just wanted them to [[spoiler:build her a robot body so she could have a physical relationship with her human partner Alex. It's implied that functional robotic bodies for brainships is a significant untapped market]].

* When UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to invoke this trope with regards to his [[{{UsefulNotes/DaleEarnhardt}} late father]]'s company (the [[{{Irony}} since-defunct]] Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) in 2007, he (along with his sister Kelly) responded by jumping ship to their archrival, Hendrick Motorsports. He stayed with [=HMS=] for the remainder of his driving career.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the share price of [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Tagon's Toughs]] briefly suffers a dramatic drop and Schlock takes the opportunity to buy a majority stake in the company, fortunately his demands are of the "I want a promotion to sergeant" (from corporal) variety, and Tagon's clever enough on his feet to tell Schlock he drives a hard bargain. While Tagon eventually regains his status as the largest stockholder and owner, it's stated later Schlock still owns a significant amount of stock.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the share price of [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Tagon's Toughs]] briefly suffers a dramatic drop and Schlock takes the opportunity to buy a majority stake in the company, fortunately he was willing to return control to Breya and Tagon in exchange for a promotion to Sergeant.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "[[Recap/LeverageS01E04TheSnowJob The Snow Job]]", the team tricks the mark's IdleRich son to sign over 51% of their company and then proceed to give back the homes that they had tricked people out of. The mark insists they will be able to get the company back, but the team tipped the police off to his violation of the RICO act earlier in the episode and he is arrested before he can do anything to stop the team dismantling the business.

'''Bruce''': And I bought most of the shares. Through various charitable foundations, trusts, and so forth - look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that ''my'' company's future is secure.

->'''Earle''': What makes you think *you* can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?\\

'''Bruce''': And I bought most of the shares. Through various charitable foundations, trusts, and so forth - look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that *my* company's future is secure.
-->--''Film/BatmanBegins''

* A benign version of this takes place over the course of Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/TheShipWhoSearched''. About a third of the way in, Hypatia Cade, a quadraplegic who has been turned into a brainship, is seen telling her stockbroker to invest some of her earnings into a cybernetics company that is apparently not very profitable. Way later, now owning a majority stake, she introduces herself as their new owner. She didn't want to do anything untoward, she just wanted them to [[spoiler:build her a robot body so she could have a physical relationship with her human partner Alex]].

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Seto Kaiba is given 2% of the shares to his stepfather's company Kaiba Corp, but has to use them to make 100 times their worth within a year's time. Seto does this by buying 51% of a company and threatening to close it and put everyone out of work unless the original owner buys it back for five times its value, which he agrees to for the sake of the employees. It's implied Seto repeats this with other companies to work up the needed money to please his stepfather. He later takes over Kaiba Corp itself with the same strategy, though this depended on [[DecidedByOneVote the 2%]] of shares from Mokuba siding with his older brother at the last second.

* In the swedish movie ''Hajen Som Visste För Mycket'', the villain gives each of his three sons 20% of the company shares, knowing that they hate each other - to the point of refusing to even be in the same room - and will thus never cooperate and threaten his position. Unfortunately for him, they're secretly the same person. (His wife really didn't want to have sex with him more than necessary, and invented the whole thing to get around his demand for three sons. Yes, it's that kind of movie.)

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', the [[FictionalUnitedNations Galactic Community]] can be dominated if one empire accumulates enough diplomatic weight to outstrip all the other members when it comes to voting. Goes double if only one empire is left in a fully-empowered Galactic Council, and they abolish all further elections to the subcommittee.

* When UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to invoke this trope with regards to his [[{{UsefulNotes/DaleEarnhardt}} late father]]'s company (the [[{{Irony}} since-defunct]] Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) in 2007, he (along with his sister Kelly) responded by jumping ship to their archrival, [[{{TheEmpire}} Hendrick Motorsports]]. He stayed with [=HMS=] for the remainder of his driving career.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', the [[FictionalUnitedNations Galactic Community]] can be dominated if one empire accumulates enough diplomatic weight to outstrip all the other members when it comes to voting. Goes double if only one empire is left in a fully-empowered Galactic Council, and they abolish all further elections to the subcommittee.

* ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'': Upon returning to New York, Danny Rand reclaims 51% of his company and uses his new position to overrule any questionable decision made by the board.

* One of the major subplots in ''Film/SupermanIII'' involves a media magnate named David Warfield (an {{Expy}} of Rupert Murdoch) buying a majority share of the ''Daily Planet'' and [[ImmoralJournalist immediately turning it into a supermarket tabloid]].

* When UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to invoke this trope with regards to his [[{{UsefulNotes/DaleEarnhardt}} late father]]'s company (the [[{{Irony}} since-defunct]] Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) in 2007, he responded by jumping ship to their archrival Hendrick Motorsports. He stayed with [=HMS=] for the remainder of his driving career.

* In George Cukor's ''Let's Make Love'', Welch buys the 51% of the theater company and when Dumas's going to be fired, he says to the director:

* The ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode "Snowball" has [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Bill Grates]] (actually Snowball the hamster in disguise) being the majority shareholder of the world, thus taking it over before Brain can, owning a 51% share.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic, "To Heir is Homer", Homer ends up being bequeathed 51% of the shares in Duff Brewery by the will of the previous owner, Sam Duff, with Montgomery Burns controlling the other 49%. He ends up driving the company into the ground with idiotic decisions and is forced to sell the shares to Burns. Fortunately for Homer, it turns out Sam Duff wasn't actually dead (so that 51% had never been actually his to begin with), and Homer had the chance to enjoy something he didn't own for a while.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', Topsy Lavish owned 50% of the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and managed to become Chairman because her dog, Mr. Fusspot, owned the crucial 1%. When she died she left all her shares to her dog and appointed Moist von Lipwig the dog's guardian, effectively making him chairman. The other members of the board want the dog dead, but fortunately Topsy has already arranged a contract on Moist and the assassin's guild won't take another (or the indignity of accepting a contract on a dog); and as long as the dog doesn't die an unnatural death they won't even follow through on it.