A publicly held company has common and preferred stock that is held by many inve

A publicly held company has common and preferred stock that is held by many investors and is actively traded.
Discuss the questions/statements below:
1. What is the difference between common stock and preferred stock? What are some of the characteristics of each type of stock?
2. What is classified stock? When “going public, why might a small company designate some stock currently outstanding as “founders’ shares”?
3. A sinking fund can be set up in one of two ways:
(a) the corporation makes annual payments to the trustee, who invests the proceeds in securities (frequently government bonds) and uses the accumulated total to retire the bond issue at maturity;
(b) the trustee uses the annual payments to retire a portion of the issue each year, either calling a given percentage of the issue by a lottery and paying a specified price per bond or buying bonds on the open market, whichever is cheaper.
Given all this, please discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure from the viewpoint of both the firm and its bondholders.