this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 77 points 2 days ago (2 children)

the day gaben dies and the company falls into the grubby hands of investors, its over.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 35 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Valve is a private company, so depending on who owns a majority of the shares, not much might change after Gabens earthly demise.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Private investors are (usually, and theoretically) more "long-term" motivated than the public markets. Day traders and rotating board members love quarterly boosts even if it implodes the company, but with private equity, passing a bag of shit to someone else isn’t so easy, and desires aren’t so fickle.

Hence I suspect you're right.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

Can you give same examples of such privately owned companies which are long term focussed?

[–] Pregnenolone@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It’s wild to me how few people understand that private companies have shareholders too

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I am not sure how to interpret your response. Do you mean I do not know that Valve as a private company does have shareholders?

[–] Redredme@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

What he means is, when gaben our lord an saviour dies, his majority shares ownership will be transferred to his inheritors.

The question "do they want to own and do they understand Valve or just see a big pile of cash?" will be answered then and there.

Which can very well result in an IPO.

[–] straightjorkin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Aren't they called investors when it's private?

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My understanding was that a large percentage of Valve is employee owned. Would love to know if that's true or not.

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

That just means that buying it spreads the money to slightly more people. They're practically just as easy to acquire.

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 4 points 2 days ago

It also means that more people have to be willing to sell (or that if only a few sell, investors hold less power)