You are mixing two things, running/owning a company and investing your money in the stock market. If the main investors at Nokia simply was looking for a place to invest their money, they would be out a long time ago. Clearly they have other objectives. That objective is a genuine one, and it is to make Nokia a healthy company in the mobile industry, a top world wide producer of phones and services. You can compare it to F1 racing, another multi billion industry. You can bet on the teams (stock market), you can do commercials, media, arrange races. There is a whole lot you can do, and last but not least, you can invest in a team as the main investor, be the financial backbone of a F1 team. Typically they are are car manufacturers, but they can be anything, and several are pure private companies doing nothing but racing. The only reason to do this, is because you have a passion for F1 racing. It's the same thing with the main Nokia investors, they have a passion for the mobile industry, or simply a passion for Nokia. A main investor wouldn't just quit because the team have a few bad seasons, not even if the team is in a steep down hill run, he would commit even more until they manage to turn it around or death is certain. The private initiative and enterprise is king. The bean counters in the stock market means nothing, they are playing a whole different game.