Over the last few decades, it has been written about the quarterly-earnings pressure of the public market, restraining long term investment and growth.  It is well documented that decisions made to satisfy investors in the short term may not be in the best long-term interests of the business.

For example, faced with a major R&D investment that could depress earnings and the company’s stock price, management might opt not to make the investment to keep the stock price higher.

Similarly, a public company CEO might not pursue a strategic acquisition that made long-term sense if the short-term effect would be to dilute the earnings that large institutional investors use quarter-to-quarter to guide their stock buying and selling. In contrast, private equity firms are able to focus on long-term performance, and therefore have a record of heavy capital expenditures in their companies in addition to investments in increased workforce. See Private Equity – by far the best accelerators of increases in capital expenditures