That was actually mountain dew (though mountain dew is owned by pepsi)

This is what they do instead. The long term agreement discount encourages people to stay subscribed rather than discouraging people from (re)starting a subscription.

It’s kind of a problem that they own the stock. It’s not the people that own the ETFs or mutual funds that get to vote with the shares. Instead, a company gets to amass that power using other people’s money.

I don’t know what a good solution is, but it’s very much a problem.

The money isn’t owed to universities. They already got theirs. The money is owed to banks. Banks will always get theirs one way or another.