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What do you think of this prediction? (programming.dev)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Publicly traded companies are, by law, driven to make as much money as possible for shareholders. Privately held companies are not held to this same limitation. So while a company like Valve could be highly profit-driven (let’s be honest, all for-profit companies in a capitalist system are driven by this motivation), it doesn’t seem to be driven to maximize profits in the short term. This means that they can focus on things other than profit if they so choose.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There is a common belief that corporate directors have a legal duty to maximize corporate profits and "shareholder value" even if this means skirting ethical rules, damaging the environment or harming employees. But this belief is utterly false. To quote the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the recent Hobby Lobby case: "Modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not."

– Lynn Stout, professor of corporate and business law, Cornell University

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

For-profit vs. Non-profit is an entirely different distinction under US law, with specific legal definitions for each. This is entirely separate under US law from publicly traded vs. privately owned, which has separate specific legal definitions.

Valve is a for-profit privately owned company. That is what allows it to not maximize shareholder value, and is the unstated distinction that allows your quote to be true.

For-profit publicly traded companies do have a legal responsibility for such.