"No. The one valid definition of a business purpose is this: A business should do what the owners want it to do. Otherwise, the notion of ownership loses meanin

"No. The one valid definition of a business purpose is this: A business should do what the owners want it to do. Otherwise, the notion of ownership loses meaning." This is specious, not all shareholders are equal and most have no practical consequence from their shareholding because they hold too few. Large shareholders are rarely, if ever, interested in being owners, they want short term tradeable instruments. Maximising shareholder value is pandering to the whims of these people whose goals are never in the interests of the underlying business.