IPO is another way to return to shareholders though, as is making a profit and paying a percentage of those profits via dividends to shareholders, which any private company can do, or using those profits to do share buybacks.

There's any number of ways to benefit the shareholders.

Its not anything you said per se, I'm simply annoyed at the legal maxim that we must maximize shareholder value whenever presented to do so, as long as its not an illegal activity.