I think they're saying that it's the shareholder's money, which is absolutely true.
However that doesn't preclude them from doing good with it, even in money-losing investments, beyond perhaps shareholder revolt ousting the board. There's an oft claimed belief that corporations are somehow bound by corporate law to do everything in their abilities to increase profits/returns for their shareholders. That is not and has never been true. Corporations are essentially mini-democracies, albeit where your say is scaled by your ownership: If the shareholders don't like it they have mechanisms to deal with it.
Nothing prevents the shareholders from taking the dividend and investing it in cold fusion or flying cars. Then you don't even need to take a vote. You just give people their money and they decide what to do with it.
However that doesn't preclude them from doing good with it, even in money-losing investments, beyond perhaps shareholder revolt ousting the board. There's an oft claimed belief that corporations are somehow bound by corporate law to do everything in their abilities to increase profits/returns for their shareholders. That is not and has never been true. Corporations are essentially mini-democracies, albeit where your say is scaled by your ownership: If the shareholders don't like it they have mechanisms to deal with it.