I keep seeing this comment and I think people are confused about private companies.

Private company is one that’s not publicly listed (traded on an exchange). Private companies still have shareholders, they may still have board of directors with shareholders representatives sitting in them. And these shareholders can still demand returns on their investment. There’s a whole industry around this called private equity.

Now it doesn’t look like Gabe Newell ever took Private Equity funding and according to the internet he owns 50% of the Valve shares but that still means that a large pile of shares is owned by other people who get some say in the company’s direction.

So saying that Valve makes this or that decision because they are private is wrong. Most companies are private and you don’t see them being all charitable and investing in open source.

You could argue that Valve is allowed to make certain decisions more freely because he’s a co-founder who still owns the majority stake though. And the company being private means that unless he sells his shares he gets to retain that control.

Okay valve and Costco, but If anyone ever fucks with the price of the hot dog.....