If someone purchases a publicly traded company for $100 then they get that company, why aren’t they the owner of $100 plus the company (maybe minus some admin overhead)

Question

This may or may not have something to do with the news cycle.

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Answer 1

If you buy an orange you are giving the money to the orange, you are giving it to the person selling the orange. A company can not own itself. One or more people own the company. When you buy a company you are buying it from those people, they get the money. If it’s a publicly traded company it’s the former shareholders who split the money (based on shares and possibly some other considerations).