when a person or group of persons acquire a significant ownership stake in a company characterized as more than 5 of a voting class of its publicly traded securities the sec requires that they disclose the purchase on a schedule 13d form in some cases they may be able to use a simpler form called the schedule 13g 
once the disclosure has been filed with the sec the public company and the exchange s on which the company trades are notified of the new beneficial owner schedule 13d is intended to provide transparency to the public regarding who these shareholders are and why they have taken a significant stake in the company the form signifies to the public that a change of control such as a hostile takeover or proxy fight might be about to take place so that current shareholders in the company can make informed investing and voting decisions the obligation to file schedule 13d lies with the new beneficial owner this is because the target company might not know the person or group behind the transaction the beneficial owner must file schedule 13d within 10 days following the purchase of the shares 1requirements for schedule 13dschedule 13d requires that the beneficial owner provide relevant information about several items which include the following item 1 security and issuer this section asks about the type of securities purchased and the name and address of the company that issued them item 2 identity and background in this section the buyers identify themselves including their type of business citizenship and any criminal convictions or involvement in civil suits within the past five years item 3 source and amount of funds or other considerations this section notes where the money is coming from including whether any of it was borrowed item 4 purpose of transaction this section of schedule 13d alerts investors to any change of control that might be looming among other disclosures beneficial owners must indicate whether they have plans involving a merger reorganization or liquidation of the issuer or any of its subsidiaries item 5 interest in securities of the issuer here the beneficial owner lists the number of shares being purchased and the percentage of the company s outstanding shares that this purchase represents item 6 contracts arrangements understandings or relationships with respect to securities of the issuer the beneficial owner should describe any agreement or relationship they have with any person regarding the target company s securities for example that might involve voting rights finder s fees joint ventures or loans or option arrangements item 7 material to be filed as exhibits these include copies of any written agreements the beneficial owner has entered into with regard to the securities special considerations disclosure of material changesif there are any material changes to the information filed in schedule 13d the beneficial owners must amend their schedule 13d within two days a material change includes any increase or decrease of at least 1 in the percentage of the class of securities held by the beneficial owner most schedule 13d filings are available for viewing in the sec s edgar database the database presents form 13d as sc 13d general statement of acquisition of beneficial ownership any amended form is denoted as sc 13d a real world example of schedule 13dthe media conglomerate iac interactivecorp iac purchased a significant amount of equity shares in mgm resorts international mgm the resulting 13d was filed on august 20 2020 with the sec 2below is a portion of the 13d filing for mgm 