Is it possible for a company to buy back 100% of all existing shares?

Why would the do that except to go private and end having stock holders ?

@Tropical_Willie I am more interested in the can and not the why?

Yes, they can. Dell Computers was a publicly held company that went private. The founder bought tons of the stock and made it private again. I’m sure there must have been a process to go from public to private. I don’t know what that it, though.

@Hawaii_Jake I mean no owners. Where the company buys all of the shares from the founders too? Like being super private. Like a ghost company? Making perpetual wealth with all profits going to the company? With no purpose or leadership or shareholders.

@RedDeerGuy1, are you thinking there’d be no people involved? Who would initiate the buying? Not just a ghost company but a zombie company?

@Jeruba Yes. Zombie company sounds like an excellent description. They would still have a board of directors. Maybe the only decisions can come form an A.I. computer.

Investopedia explains it this way

It’s possible, but why bother if a majority of the stock is all that is required for total control of the enterprise?

^There are countless fewer regulations on private business than a publicly traded one.

There are many employee-owned cooperatives, some of which were once companies owned by one or more investors or the original owners. Though that is where the employees are the stockholders.

There are also organizations which have no investors, such as foundations and non-profit organizations and churches etc.

A for-profit corporation which bought out its investors might tend to become a non-profit organization, though I suppose in theory there could be a for-profit corporation with no investors – maybe it’s purpose is to destroy capitalism as we know it, by trying to own everything.

Companies sometimes have buybacks, so it is theoretically possible for a company to own all of its own shares, but I don’t think it happens very often. For example, a buyback may increase the value of the shares, but what good does this do if the company itself is the only shareholder?

Sure, it’s called Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

@LostInParadise I mean, I can imagine a company that would use its own private information about itself to profiteer on insider trading arbitrage of its own stock. That could be pretty comical, but it might need to switch up it’s game once some investors figured out what it was doing.

Yes. A company usually sells stock to acquire money for expanding business concerns. Once they make enough money, they can buy it back.

There has to be owners of the business, or stock holders. Someone to get the rewards of profit from the company.