This doesn't seem like the best heuristic. Your automatic interpretation of "we are not interested in selling" is "we are interested in selling"?
I don't know why Mullvad issued a notice to talk about ownership, but I presume it was because they've gotten alot of M&A interest or it's a marketing move to garner trust from their client-base (i.e. others are getting distrust for selling).
I know more examples of companies who publicly say they're not interested in selling that do than those that don't. In other words, why be public about it?[0] Clearly there is M&A interest for a company like this.
Do you know any for-profit orgs that say publicly they aren't selling and actually don't? Most I know simply aren't public about it.
[0] - Btw - one M&A trick to drive up a valuation is to say you're not for sale. So yes this heuristic is absolutely valid in that sense.
> I don't know why Mullvad issued a notice to talk about ownership
The reason is probably because ExpressVPN was just bought by Kape. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28552731
> Upvoted because you have good points
I have a feeling people are downvoting me because they think people are bad/evil for wanting money. Weird.
You represent a branch of people this system grew which would rather make up some story than to believe that people actually won't sell something because it's important to them.
And yes, think about their families. My SO would throw me out if I's sell what I believe in and I'd deserve it. What an example to the kids would that make? I'd be despicable to them.
Yeah, I agree it's weird.
Personally, I'd love to have enough money to not have to work the rest of my life, or worry about anything. Nothing evil with that.