Final answer:
To change the company's top management, a majority of the shares is required. The minimum number of investors needed to achieve this majority is calculated by dividing the total number of shares by 2 and adding 1. If investors 1 and 2 vote together, they would not have enough shares to secure a majority and cannot be certain of always getting their way.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order to vote to change the company's top management, the shareholders must have a majority of the shares. The minimum number of investors required to meet this majority depends on the total number of shares and the distribution of shares among the investors.
In this case, the total number of shares is 100,000. To calculate the minimum number of investors needed to meet the majority, we need to divide the total number of shares by 2 and add 1. So, the minimum number of investors required to vote for a change in top management would be (100,000 / 2) + 1 = 50,001.
If investors 1 and 2, who together own 20,000 + 18,000 = 38,000 shares, agree to vote together, they would not have enough shares to secure a majority. Therefore, they cannot be certain of always getting their way in how the company will be run.