When people invest in a business, whether it be your sibling’s business, or a local business, or a publicly traded business, they do it because they expect a re

When people invest in a business, whether it be your sibling’s business, or a local business, or a publicly traded business, they do it because they expect a return on investment. An infrastructure utility such as ATT typically has to offer dividends because it is not going to experience the type of growth that would result in a return via share price increase. Of course, ATT’s prices are not regulated like a proper utility, even though they should be, but it is still subject to the same market forces that prevent it from growing like a tech company would, who would have the option of foregoing dividends (or share buybacks).