Article · 9 min read

50/50 Shareholder Deadlock: Avoiding and Resolving Disputes

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The cleanest case for the answer's core move: appoint a chairman who holds a casting vote so an even split can still produce a decision. It separates prevention (casting vote, independent director, supermajority thresholds, put/call options drafted up front) from cure (mediation, forced buyout, winding up), which is the right way to think, you want the prevention list in your agreement so you never touch the cure list.

  • A chairman with a casting vote is the simplest tiebreaker for an even shareholding
  • Prevention lives in the agreement (casting vote, independent director, put/call options); cure means courts, buyouts, or winding up
  • A winding-up petition is the nuclear fallback that exists precisely to push both sides back to the table
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The question it answers

  1. How do we handle deadlock when two co-founders own 50/50 and cannot agree on a major decision?

Read with it

  1. This is the explainer written for exactly your situation: two founders, 50/50, no tiebreaker. It lays out the full menu you can... SPZ Legal Article · 12 min read How to Resolve Deadlock in 50/50 Co-Founder Situations SPZ Legal
  2. This is the worked mechanics of the buy-sell clause in Indian shareholders-agreement language, not a generic Western template.... Mondaq India Article · 10 min read Deadlock Resolution Mechanism in Joint Venture Agreements Mondaq (Indian corporate counsel)
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