Richard Branson Quotes

Most shareholders have little if any control over the companies in which they own stock, even if they own a million shares.

We had the controlling shares but we weren’t in control.

At Time Warner, I had ten percent of the stock after the merger. But when we merged with AOL, I was diluted down to three percent.

Good shareholder activists have incredible interest in the company because they own a lot of it.

If I'm on the board of any company where there's an offer that comes in, I want to negotiate.

I'd be resentful if shareholders who don't know the business tried to tell me what to do.

I think that might have been an element in it, and people have asked me that very thing. Remember, Disney is the majority shareholder, but it is not an operating division of Disney.

Banks need to have large shareholders on the board that have a direct interest in their performance.

Once investors come in, it's hardly your company anymore!

Chief executives, who themselves own few shares of their companies, have no more feeling for the average stockholder than they do for baboons in Africa.

I mean I wasn't a founder in the sense that I contributed anything scientifically but in the sense that I signed the corporation papers and, and owned founder's stock.

I am the largest shareholder in SoftBank; I share the same interest as the other shareholders.

Activist shareholder resolutions do not have to pass to succeed. The process itself can be so injurious to a company that management will cave to demands.

No one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO.

To a large extent, equity investors put their hard-earned capital into the hands of management and count on it being employed skilfully and honestly. When that doesn't happen, losses typically follow.

Not having sub-governance would be like anyone who owns USD being able to walk into a Google shareholder meeting and voting without owning Google stock just because Google shares happen to be denominated in USD.

I have never applied for a share in Tehelka.

The World Bank is a shareholder-driven organisation, and as in all such organisations, the majority of shareholders would want a manager of their liking at the top.

You can't put your name, recognition, your money in a company without having share in the control.

If a German company takes over 51 percent of an Indian one, it is given far-reaching controlling rights. But if an Indian company owns the majority of a German company, it is granted only very limited influence. That is unfair.

Do I have a problem with Larry Ellison buying Sun? No, that's part of the capitalist system. As soon as we go public we're for sale, that's part of the deal. And do I have a problem with him exercising his intellectual property rights? No, I don't have a problem with that. Would it be how we necessarily ran and operated? Obviously not.

Nothing in finance is more fatuous and harmful, in our opinion, than the firmly established attitude of common stock investors regarding questions of corporate management. That attitude is summed up in the phrase: "If you don't like the management, sell your stock." ... The public owners seem to have abdicated all claim to control over the paid superintendents of their property.

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.

I'm not the boss of my house. I don't know how I lost it, I don't know when I lost it, I don't really think I ever had it. But I've seen the boss's job...and I don't want it!

Berkshire has the lowest turnover of any major company in the U.S.The Walton family owns more of Wal-Mart than Buffett owns of Berkshire, so it isn't because of large holdings. It's because we have a really unusual shareholder body that thinks of itself as owners and not holders of little pieces of paper.