still,

i believe you are on the slippery slope of a definition regarding ownership. a shareholder is an owner of the company they hold the shares to. if a sharehholder owns 1 share of PTSC, then ownership is 1/400,000,000 of the company. that ownership is small but it is regarded as ownership. when a company goes public, they offer shares of ownership of the company. Going public with a company is selling ownership rights via shares. this is a reason increasing the number of shares of a company is so important to sharehholders because their ownership is being diluted.

you are confusing ownership of a private company with ownership of a public company. if a public company suffers losses the IRS will not come knocking on every sharehholders door looking for a check or in the case of profits you should not expect a check in the mail. but a shareholder roi is the price of the shares and dividends. the stock market is trading ownership rights of the company. if you own over 50% of a public company, you in fact, own controlling interest and a BOD would need your approval on any changes to the exisitng corporate structure. there are certain rules that need to be followed by a public company and those same rules do not apply to a private company. all publicly traded companies must have a BOD, a private company does not.

teremoto