I do not understand the stock market... at all... why would you take a private company and say, hey lets make it a publically traded company so its value can now no longer be assessed by it's assets and profits but by the mood of the general public?
Its a way to borrow money, a Loan, Companies issue stocks and collect that money to use in doing business
They can also sell Bonds to raise money but those will have a pre-set interest rate and a term, when the Bond needs to be paid back in full, like a 5-year Bond
The US issues Savings Bonds to raise money
The advantage of Stocks, to a company, is that there is no term, no specific repayment date, and it usually means a stock owner(shareholder) owns a piece of the company, but that depends on what kind of stock it is
So downside to the Company is that "shareholders" may need to be consulted on changes in the company
And a company may wish to buy back some shares, or if the company is being sold the other company buying it will by back the shares to gain ownership, owners of the stock/shares can sell or not sell at the offered price
The Company only collects the money when the stock or share is first sold
The stock market price of a share after that doesn't go to the company, market price is just between buyers and sellers of that stock/share
But the company does retain shares, the % of shares they still own, so they can sell these to get more money, or borrow against them, using shares as collateral
When stock market goes down it means owners of stocks are willing to sell their shares at a buyers offered price which is lower that day, so if a stock was selling at $100, and offered buy price was $99 and ANY owner of that stock sold it, then that stock price is now $99, last sold price is the value listed
If you also owned that stock then its value is now $99, but....................unless you sold the shares as well then you haven't actually lost any money, just value
Think of it as going to an auto parts swap meet, buyers and sellers, value changes but what its worth is only establish when YOU Sell or Buy