At the heart of it is the distinction between Value and Price - as in Oscar Wilde's definition of a Cynic as knowing "the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing".

So maybe Shareholder Value concerns Price and Share Value is actual increase in assets over Time (Marx's Surplus Value?).  Dividends are a side issue, being merely a matter of distribution of this Surpus Value.

We must also look at the way Price may lose touch with the Reality of "Value Generation".

ie the multiple of expected earnings reflected in the Price.

In a "Bubble" the Price no longer reflects the underlying Reality of Value Generation, because individuals' expectations relate to future Price (ie the "Greater Fool" out there), rather than that of future Value.

It never ceases to make me smile when I hear that "£x billion of shareholder value" was lost when the market price falls.

The Reality of the business - the Share Value - remains exactly what it was before the fall: only Shareholders perceptions have changed.


"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson