@vesuvius:
Paying dividends is not the only way to create value for a company. There are companies out there Berkshire Hathaway being notable who never pay dividends as a policy. Any profit they make is immediately reinvested in the company. This allowed them to grow from a textile company to a huge conglomerate. The shareholders benefit greatly because that share you had of a small textile company is now a share of a huge conglomerate - it's inherently worth more because it covers more assets.
I personally think this a better way of doing business. Consider the HUGE overhead of paying dividends. I personally have some stocks in various companies that pay dividends, and I swear I get like 50 cent checks every now and then. Now why the hell do I need that? All that overhead in mailing the check (postage, printing etc.) is more than the value of the check. And now I have to go to the bank and possibly waste more than $1 in gas to cash this check? They have to do this for millions of shareholders!
Plus the taxation systems in many countries disincentive dividends. I guess dividends can make sense for companies with a small number of shareholders but I don't think they make sense for big publicly traded companies. Just reinvest the money in the company and help my stock value grow and I'll be happy.
