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Douglas_Knight comments on Open Thread, Feb 8 - Feb 15, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion
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The problem with ignoring these real humans' desires is that your buyout plan fails. You can only pay off the current shareholders, and without some form of more serious government intervention, the employees and consumers will cause NEW enterprises to replace them.
And if you're going to use the government mandate hammer to prevent that, why not just use it in the first place rather than spending the buyout money?
The existing tobacco companies are real assets that require compensation if they are nationalized, while the right to create new companies does not require compensation if it is destroyed.
You might also ask why people don't create new American tobacco companies to acquire the advertising rights that existing companies gave up in Master Settlement.
A lot depends on what the "real assets" are. They have no property right in future revenue if customers choose to buy somewhere or something else. They may have contractual rights to a monopoly, which could be purchased (but which is pretty suspect to start with). They do likely have property rights in plant (heh) and equipment, which will be a natural barrier to competitive entry.