By that logic is every SF startup that pays 6 figure SWE salaries and offering perks like catered lunches but aren't making any money also "robbing shareholders"?

Yes, but they’re not public companies. VCs go into the game knowing they’ll be diluted. The pension fund that owns your public company has different views. Public markets view this very differently hence why it’s getting attention this morning.

Can certainly be framed that way. And the second the returns wobble it will be.

Robbing shareholders? That same mentality justified Ballmer’s decision to replace free coffee with paid coffee machines. Which marked the beginning of a long decline for MS: an increased stock price but long term internal atrophy.

The shareholders benefit when the employees have an incentive to do good work.

What paid coffee machines? (I was MSFT 2001-2013, I don't think I ever saw this).

It wasn't Microsoft.

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/

People who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

That's fine when they are accountants, it's important to tell the decision makers the costs. The decision makers know the value.

The problem is when the decision makers don't know the value.

Stockholders have full knowledge about the total cost of these compensation packages. They're not being tricked into investing. It doesn't satisfy any definition of robbery.

Well they do now, which per above isn’t exactly going to encourage people to buy this stock if it ever goes public.