As of December 10, 2010, our authorized capitalization was 155,000,000 shares of capital stock, consisting of 150,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share and 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share.
Common Stock
We are authorized to issue 150,000,000 shares of common stock, $.001 par value per share. As of the date hereof, 51,241,926 common shares are issued and outstanding.
Authorized stock is the amount of stock that a corporation is allowed to sell. Think of it as the number of shares that a company is permitted to sell.
Issued stock is the number of shares that said company has sold. This includes shares that the company bought back (treasury stock) or retired (no longer available in the market).
Outstanding Stock is the number of shares that have been sold and are being traded in the market. Outstanding stock does not include treasury stock (the stock the company bought back--think of it as a companies piggy bank for stock it is not available to the public although it was previously sold until it was re-acquired). It also does not include the stock that has been retired. Outstanding stock reflects only the amount of shares that have been sold to the stockholders and remains out on the market.
Preferred stock is stock that comes with "special" privileges such as the ability to get paid dividends (a share of the company's profits) first before the "non-special" or common stockholders do. If a company decides to "give back" to its shareholders some of its profits, then preferred stockholders get paid first before any of the common stockholders do. If there is not enough money left for the common stockholders, then only the preferred stockholders get paid. There are other rights associated with preferred stock such as the ability to collect in the assets of the company upon liquidation, but that rarely happens as creditors take claim to most of the assets during a liquidation.