Only aproximatively the 99,9%, in the BBB is stated that S-K is owned almost wholy by Lowfyr (ALMOST).
Also since when dragons kick? They have much better reach with jaws, talons, breath (whatever never offer a mint to a dragon), spells, underlings, hired workforce; they have much better options aviable, why should they kick?

Strange that they'd kill the only interesting thing about that corp. I was looking forwards to the Emperor of Japan having his own pet mega, too.

Why would he possibly want to do that? That makes no sense. He has just as much control over SK with 50.00001% as he does with 99.999%. The difference being, as he's in the process of buying that last 49.999998%, the stock prices go up, since he's basically competing with himself. And now that he has SK, all that money is basically doing nothing (in regards to power plays). 99.9999% doesn't give him any more control over SK or any other corporation, but 50.00001% in SK and 33% in Ares gives him complete control of SK and substantial control over Ares.

Only one problem with your little write up. SK is private, meaning that there is no stocks. And for the longest time, the Wizworm owned 100% of the company (pretty much SR1 to SR3). I'm surprised that he parted out any of it at all, but if I had to guess, I would say that he gave fractions of a % share to his most loyal followers (IE: His Voice and such).

Private companies don't have to have stock holder meetings, they don't have to post earnings, they don't have to explain or expose their actions to anyone. Quiet simply Lofwry would never need the money enough to overcome his meglomania. He could sell stocks in profitable subsidiaries, should he need a cash influx. And owning SK doesn't prevent him from owning Ares stock, either.

Damien Knight, IIRC, went the 51 percent route with Ares, and look at all the trouble it caused him.

Private corporations have stock, it's just that their stock isn't publicly traded.

Anyway, the best advantage of owning practically all of a megacorp comes in the form of dividends. A megacorp earns many trillions annually, a large portion of that goes back into the corp, but the rest goes straight into shareholders' pockets based on the number of stocks that they own. And if you own all of the stocks of a AAA, that's trillions going directly into your bank account.

Actually there may be a downside to Lofwry giving up any control of his stock. Even if the stock is still privately held, and/or contains provisions preventing its transfer to others, its still stock. That is, it represents part ownership of the company. Now, if Lofwry still holds a majority he can still make all the decisions, but, depending upon the corporate charter, some decisions may require a super-majority or even unanimous decsisions to make. Now depending upon the actual agreements in place, this may not be a factor. Heck, those other issues of stock may not even confer voting rights.

But if its still stock, it still represents part ownership of the company. And as much as Lofwry may hate it, this means he must be, in some ways, somewhat beholden to their desires. There are many ways even minority, non-voting shareholders can impress their wishes on the company. The most prominent is that they can file suit against the corporation and get the courts (the corporate court in the case I suppose) to issue judgments against the company forcing it to changes its ways, pay damages, ect. Another way is to utilise the fact that corporate shareholders are in some situations empowered to take actions on behalf of the company, especially if the company itself refuses to take action.

Now obviously someone deciding to strike back against Lofwry in this way would have to have balls of steel, but it could make for an interesting set of shadowruns, thats for sure! And just think of the legend such a business man might make for himself if he was to succeed. Possible cannidates for such a manuver include any other Dragon's that might hold SK stock (a very dragonish manuver a minority suit I seem to think). Damien Knight, especially if SK makes moves against Ares, or maybe even that fixer guy Lofwry uses all the time who's name escapes me... after all its the ones closest to you who is best placed to drive the knife in your back.

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Another concept to consider is that while Lofwry might not have all that much to loose by giving up stock in his company (even taking all of what I said above, its likely a minor risk at most for him), he is a Dragon and might think differently about it then we do. Lofwry probably does not play well with others, and probably does not enjoy the idea of sharring ownership of HIS coporation. Which is why those stocks might revert to him on their owners death... and maybe Lofwry has decided he wants that particular bit of stock back about now...

Just some thoughts....

According to the BBB, Lofwyr owns 63% of SK. This effectively means that he is in control. While he could do the same at 50.1%, this ensures that he doesn't accidentally sell the company to someone else. Being a dragon I don't think he would fall for it at 50.1%, but I'm pretty sure he is buying and selling SK stock all the time. He knows when the price is going to rise, and knows when it is going to fall. If that doesn't happen as he expects it, executives get an invitation to dinner.

Personally, I don't expect megacorps like the ones in Shadowrun to arise. The thing is, conglomerates suck. Not suck as in they screw the consumer for their own benefit, but suck as in they underperform and nobody benefits, except maybe their competitors. Study after study over the last few decades has shown that, with very few exceptions, companies focused on a single line of business perform better. The only way cyberpunk has been able to make the concept of megacorps halfway plausible has been to propose a breakdown in government control which allows bigger companies to simply bully smaller ones through violence, blackmail, insider trading, and anticompetitive agreements, and none of those actually get around the problem of companies losing efficiency as they diversify.

and also seems to hit a brick wall when it comes to growth at some point. and as just about everyone wants to see continual growth (no matter how impossible that is, given physics), they start to spread out...

Not only loss of government control, but loss of government services. If the government can no longer provide safe housing, cheap and dependable power generation, etc. etc., the corporation that can provide it for itself wins. If Ares toothbrush manufacturing has power 24/7, while Bob's toothbrush manufacturing loses power from 6-9pm every night and 11am-3pm during the summer, Ares will win, even if Ares is less efficient for running their own power generation to boot.

This creates a vicious cycle because once Ares provides its own power, security, etc., it firstly no longer has to pay the state for these utilities, and secondly actively wants to derail the state machinary (because it kills all the small-fries). Ares actively benefits from keeping society close to anarchy, because all corporations need stability to thrive, and only the big ones can provide internal stability.

in the end one start to wonder if the corporations of shadowrun no longer is in the biz of earning money, but providing stability in exchange for virtual enslavement.

i guess its one of those surviving themes from cyberpunk. one i suspect is potentially based on a misunderstanding of the japanese work ethic or something. maybe with a bit of henry ford thrown in for kicks. but in the end its all based on the US work environment, one i cant even begin to grasp.

MaxMahem is correct. To pass ordinary resolutions at board level you need >50% of voting stock. But to pass special resolutions you need >75% and these are only standard resolutions a firms charter may incorporate certain situations that require resolutions to be passed by even greater proportions.

As to my Lofwyr might want more than 50% of the company. Getting 75% will bid up price but when he gets it Lofwyr can delist the company to private status. His share price is no longer a visible indicator of sucess so he doesn't need to worry about it tanking when he halts dividend payments. Anyone holding stock now has an investment that they won't get any return on and they can't sell on the stock exchange they have to find a private buyer - who will get on Lofwyr's sh*t list!).

Once this happens you might as well sell up. When Lofwyr gets 90% he can make a compulsory purchase of any remaining stock. If the diehard shareholder has >10% of stock left and Lofwyr has a typical dragon's "I don't share" attitude he might put out a call for "deniable assets"...

I'm still trying to figure out why Lofwyr sold some 37% of his companies stock. Ahhhh, I found the fail where you got the 63% from. That was his initial purchase, before forcing through a management buyout that made him the sole owner.



Too bad, so sad, Lofwyr does own 100% of the company, minus any little fractions he might hand out to people he chooses. Which, at any time, he can force a buyout of and instantly return to 100%.

I certainly think it is (at least in some locales). That may be why nations like the NAN and the Tir are more hostile towards corporations compared to the UCAS.




Your post is very interesting. It explains a lot. However, how come when he got to 75% he couldn't change the rules and move it so at 50.1% he has full control over all special resolutions, et al.? Is that limit set by federal law or something?

Long established practices, Federal Law in the US right now, and I expect Corporate Court Law in the 6th world. I doubt even Lofwyr would want to take the CC on.

remind me, is or is not S-K a eurocorp?

still, given that shadowrun was created by US people, it would not surprise me if it basically because US == WORLD, like it all to often becomes

S-K, 'tis German. Based in Essen and the largest of the megacorps.

Actually, when Shadowrun was first released it was using the late-80s pre-financial-crash-Japan-rules-the-world model so most of the megacorps were Japanese: Mitsuhama, Yamatetsu, Fuchi, Renraku, and Shiawase. Only Aztechnology, Ares and Saeder-Krupp were non-Japanese.

It's a kind of inaccurate to say that AA and AAA corps belong to a nation, they are multinationals that own pretty much half of the world, obviously the management mindasset of the corps can be influenced to greater degree by a certain culture and in the case of japanacorps it is appropriate to say that they are japanese, but with other corps? S-K culture isn't german it's draconian, what makes it an eurocorp is that Lofwyr wants to rule the continent so has invested most of his resources and effort in it (if he didn't give a frag about it and wanted Australia S-K would be australian); Ares can be said that it is american, but seriously it's more PR and a nice "internal culture" thing that helps to keep loyal its employes; Fuchi has always been a Hydra of a corp, the japanese might have wished that it was purely japanese but Fuchi America prevented it, than it went belly up and ultimately it became an euro-american corp; the Azzies aren't aztlanders, it's Aztlan that is a subsidiary of Aztechnology; Yamatetsu was a full fledged japanacorp until their racism got them on the wrong side of an ork who happened to be a major shareholder and to have the support of Buttercup, than trown the japanese brand out of the window becoming one of the most globaly minded corporations.
Well maybe we have to wait the Corp Book to know more about it.

What rules a corporation operates under is dictate both by its charter, and by state and federal laws. In the SR setting I imagine the corporate court would dictate what terms for the charter would and would not be valid.

Since the books are obviously a little vague on what the status of corporate law is in the 6th world, the GM should feel free to make up whatever would best suit his plot. There are lots of potential runs that could result from disputes over corporate law, the old corporate books had some good details on this.

No, the megacorps don't belong to a nation any more than a modern corporation belongs to one. It belongs to its shareholder(s). But the cultural influence and business practices of a corporation's nation of origin are always there. I can't think of anything more properly German or Western European, in a mythological context, than a dragon and anything more appropriately German from a business stand-point, than having your industries focused on heavy industry, oil, and BMW cars. Ares is all about the guns and Motor City culture and that's stereotypically American. Yes, Aztlan is a subsidiary of Aztechnology but Aztechnology is run as a blood religion based on ancient Aztech/pre-Mexican practices that also happens to be a business.

Toyota is an international corporation but Toyota is run like a Japanese company, not like an American one. Just because a company has a global reach doesn't mean it's lost its roots. And like someone posted earlier, there's no real-life counterpart for a megacorp. It would be like if a Wal-Mart HQ was mashed with the Vatican.

Doesn't one of the books mention that it's against the rules for one AAA corporation to own a large chunk of another or an individual that owns controlling interest in one a large chunk of another? I could have sworn that if it wasn't a hard and fast Corporate Court rule then it pretty much a definitive unwritten one that was understood by all.