Less than 50% ownership of a corporation's voting stock, or not enough ownership to control company operations. From a purely accounting point of view, a parent company which owns less than 100% but more than 50% of a subsidiary presents the value of the remaining ownership (the minority ownership) on the balance sheet in a separate account. In such cases, minority interest is shown as either a liability or an equity item on the consolidated balance sheet, and the income (or loss) owed to the minority owners is subtracted from (or added to) the parent's income to arrive at a net income number (consolidated).

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