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Comment by H8crilA | Hacker News Reader

I wish it had more details on the company liquidations. Like I'm curious - what did the unfortunate Pets.com shareholders eventually receive? How long did it take? Which assets were sold, which were just trashed? Any interesting fights with shareholders/bondholders? Book values of startups (including long running but still rather poor startups like Tesla or Uber) are usually very low.

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I was a 3dFX shareholder when their fortunes turned, and they were "acquired" by nVidia. Or at least just their IP assets were. As a regular shareholder, I got nothing- no payout, no nVidia shares. My modest investment became worthless nearly overnight. Somebody made money on this deal- it wasn't me, and it wasn't put up for shareholder vote.

Probably the funds from the acquisition did not even clear the debt on the cap table, and thereby did not leave any money for equity shareholders like you

All you wanted to know here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1900489/in-re-3dfx-int...

What I like about bankruptcy in the west is how public everything has to become.

Probably the stock liquidation preferences didn't extend to your class of stock. Also debt.

Right; debt holders get paid out before shareholders...which is only fair. Debt covers things like rent and employee wages--owners of the company should get paid out last.

Agreed. Debt is senior to any stock but not all stock is equal; there’s liquidation preferences and who is at the table. Employees usually get the shaft even if founders technically hold common. Employees aren’t at the table.

The article mentions this. It’s a subtle point about prisoners dilemma. In an acquisition, there is no sense of equity, just interest.

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