Tara wrote:
Investments in other proven and profitable growth sectors will also ensure that BATS as a company has a much longer future. Many stakeholders in the company would see this as a good thing.
And there is nothing preventing those many stakeholders from pursuing that strategy. All that is needed is to take a stake in such alternative companies directly (and reducing their exposure in BATS if necessary). Thinking the best way is to have this done at a corporate level (with the byproduct it then isn't what other "many stakeholders" might want) is a fallacy.
Good company management is to provide a clear strategy and corporate plan for its stakeholders who themselves can then decide, with knowledge of that clear plan, on how they allocate their capital. Diversification (as with hedging for FX, interest rates, commodity pricing ...) can be, and is, undertaken at the investor level, if required (admittedly more difficult in many instances at retail investor level).