SGQ: TAKE OVER TARGET ?, page-47

OK. Listen up.

The very existence of secondary markets that allow ownership to change hands is what makes the system work.

You say IPO's etc are investing in the company. Naive. That initial investment in the company is transferred to each subsequent owner, it still exists even though the current owner wasn't the initial investor.
Secondly, and equally as importantly, the very existence of secondary markets make primary markets possible. Ask yourself, who would invest in a company if you couldn't sell at some point? So if I invest in a company today I make the previous IPO possible.
Thirdly, buyers today have a positive impact on pricing, thus helping a business with it's cost of raising additional equity in the future. So by buying shares today, in anything, is actually investing in the businesses ability to fund its future. So a subsequent SPP or rights is price is directly affected by the share price, which is affected by the buyers/investors who set the price.

Sorry to everyone else for derailing the thread, but the point needed to be made. There's too much uneducated preaching going on here that could influence readers.