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You may be interested to know that a small counterculture of public companies has openly forsworn shareholder wealth maximization in public disclosures. So far
by kemitchell 12y ago
You may be interested to know that a small counterculture of public companies has openly forsworn shareholder wealth maximization in public disclosures. So far as I can tell, Berkshire Hathaway lead the way in recent memory. Google followed suit in a letter to shareholders in the process of going public.
- peteretep 12y agoAre you using a definition of maximising shareholder value that doesn't mean what it appears to say on the tin? Berkshire Hathaway exists solely to maximise shareholder value, prima facie. Why else would people buy and hold their shares? Altruism? Warren says it exists to enrich shareholders in the long term. Are confusing shareholder value with a short-term focus on return?
- sp332 12y agoIt gives them leeway to do some things that don't explicitly or obviously increase shareholder value. Or I suppose they could do something "ethical" instead of profitable, but I don't think that's very likely.
- kemitchell 12y agoI was! Forgive me for playing loose with my terms after one too many comments. I understood BH/Google to be implicitly criticizing the myopia of "shareholder value" as that term is usually meant.