Comment by svnt

The viability and profitability of the strategy depend critically on the ownership and control position of the CEO. Many CEOs do not have all that much stock, in percentage terms. If they have access to resources and sufficient board control they could privatize, reset the cap table, and reorganize.

If they were to reorganize first and produce a company worth as much as its competitors, they only get eg 5% of eg 30B, which after taxes makes them maybe a billionaire. Reorg and do the same thing and they could be looking at control and $10-20B.

Where tens of billions of dollars are involved, “really complicated” and “high risk” plays are basically table stakes.