If the shares are equally balanced and there is a stalemate, one or other of the shareholders may be understandably reluctant to exploit potential sales opportunities and/or new ventures for the company on which the future prosperity of the company might depend.  They may prefer to begin to prepare for a split and to set up a separate business. Sometimes the relationship have deteriorated so badly that the directors do not speak to each other. This atmosphere can be picked up by staff who begin to consider their options elsewhere. Nobody gains from such a stalemate as not only does the business from which the owners earn an income produce less profit, but it can only reduce the eventual value of the shares of the shareholder who subsequently agrees to sell to the other as part of a settlement.