To have controlling interest, a shareholder needs to hold majority of company’s voting shares.

The
definition of majority of voting shares depends upon interest and also varies from one company to
another. Some important interests like merger or acquisition or liquidation of assets often require
2/3 vote. In such cases, an organization having simple majority of voting shares may not be able to
control the outcome.
When we say a shareholder must hold majority of company’s voting shares we do not necessarily
mean to say that the shareholder must more than 50 % of company’s outstanding shares. This is
because each share does not have same voting power.
Example : In Facebook, although Zuckerberg holds only 18 % of outstanding shares he still has
controlling interest in the organization as most of his shares are class B which have 10 votes per
share as compared to normal class A share which has only 1 vote per share.

So, a shareholder can hold less than 50 % of outstanding shares have controlling interest as long as
his shares have greater percentage of voting rights. On the other hand, share holder can have more
than 50 % of share holding and still have non controlling interest as his shares may have lower voting
power.