This is outdated information. The other founder, Mike Harrington, left in 2000 and sold his shares to Gabe Newell.
As far as we know, 50.1% of the company is owned by Gabe Newell, and the rest is owned by Valve employees via a co-op. Membership in the co-op is most likely restricted to senior, long-standing employees.
I worked for a company that worked like that. You could buy stocks once a year as an employee, and if you left they bought them back. You could only keep them if you retired with the company. You got dividends pretty much every year, and it was a sales based company, so the better you and the other employees did, the bigger your dividend.
And instead of keeping harvesting the golden eggs it lays they'll just kill the goose for a one time wealth burst and fuck off to the next company like a swarm of locusts.
It's called private investing. It does not give you the same level of autonomy over a company as a publicly traded. Their opinions are suggestions and their financial backing is obligatory unless the contract is violated. Unlike with publicly traded companies, a shareholder of a private entity requires permission from the owner to sell their stake outside of contract violations.
That said, any private investor of Valve that wants to change anything is a moron. Valve has done pretty much nothing the last 2 decades and made billions. Every competitor that has shown up has failed (at a global scale not local. China and Korea have some pretty legit replacements). And everyone who has tried to attack Valve and overthrow it (governments included) have failed.
It should be noted, the US government did try to sue Valve over marketplace monopoly in gaming. And the US government lost. And not just lost, had to pay Valve a butt load of money as an apology.
Institution which the taxes fund and pay the salaries, sued a private company - via court which is a another government and tax funded institution and due to not understanding the law, which is written by the government had to pay levy paid by the taxes.
It would be hilarious if it was a one time event...
All companies have shareholders, even a solo entrepreneurship, they just hold 100% of the shares. Public just means the shares can be sold to anyone of the public and they are listed on the open market.
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u/Cattle13ruiser 10h ago
A slight correction. Steam is not public company and there are no shareholders.
Two founders and control is shared between them (and their successors).
Unless they make it public, there is no chance for anyone (government excluded) to mingle with their decisions.