Some entities are controlled not through votes but through contracts, funding and exposure to results. These are called variable interest entities. Under US accounting rules, the one party that has both the power to direct the activities that most significantly affect the entity's economic performance and the obligation to absorb losses, or the right to receive benefits, that could be significant to it, is the primary beneficiary. That party must consolidate the entity.
Consolidation puts the entity's assets, debts, revenue and costs onto the primary beneficiary's statements, even if it owns little or none of the equity. The conclusion is reassessed when facts change, and it takes judgment, so two similar arrangements can be treated differently.
It is a common issue with special-purpose entities, joint ventures, financing vehicles, and structures built around a customer or supplier. Other holders of interests in the entity are not required to consolidate it.
Read the note on variable interest entities, which describes which ones the company consolidates and which it does not, and the maximum exposure to loss.