At least one point is control. When you're not beholden to shareholders, you can run a company effectively as you see fit. As an employee, I actually look at wh

At least one point is control. When you're not beholden to shareholders, you can run a company effectively as you see fit. As an employee, I actually look at whether a company is privately or publicly held because I'm of the (possibly mistaken/excessive?) opinion that you cannot run a truly mission-oriented public company (unless that mission is to maximize shareholder value, I suppose, but that's not a particularly compelling mission for me).