Final answer:
The corporate balance sheets report authorized, issued, and outstanding shares. A simple majority is needed for shareholders to effect change in management, with authorized shares set by charter, issued shares sold to investors, and outstanding shares held excluding any repurchased by the company.
Step-by-step explanation:
Corporate balance sheets report the number of shares in three main categories: authorized, issued, and outstanding shares. Answer option d. Authorized, issued, and outstanding shares is correct. Authorized shares are the total number of shares a company is legally allowed to issue, per its corporate charter. Issued shares refer to the portion of the authorized shares that have been sold to and held by the shareholders. Outstanding shares are the shares that are currently owned by shareholders, excluding any treasury shares that the company may have bought back from investors.
When looking at shareholder dynamics like in the problem regarding The Darkroom Windowshade Company, understanding the number of outstanding shares is crucial to determine the voting power. In this example, to change the company's top management, a simple majority of more than 50% of the voting shares is needed. As investor 1 and investor 2 together hold 38,000 shares out of 100,000, they do not have the majority and therefore cannot be certain of always getting their way in how the company is run without additional support from other investors.