Private investors still want profit, but hopefully they'd be more interested (because of their larger stakes on average) in less rapacious approaches.
Although, now that I think about it, the key metric here is probably growth. As long as a company is growing, if growth >> margin to be reclaimed by being an ass, growth wins. But when growth =< that margin... there's always going to be pressure (aka Google).
Private investors still want profit, but hopefully they'd be more interested (because of their larger stakes on average) in less rapacious approaches.
Although, now that I think about it, the key metric here is probably growth. As long as a company is growing, if growth >> margin to be reclaimed by being an ass, growth wins. But when growth =< that margin... there's always going to be pressure (aka Google).