Skype legend Morten Lund bankrupt | Hacker News Reader

Skype legend Morten Lund bankrupt

uk.techcrunch.com

32 pointspclark13 comments

Techcrunch got the facts wrong (again). It's 10 million Danish kroner (DKK), not krona, which is equivalent to 1.76 million USD at the current exchange rate. He promised he would give 10 million to the former CEO and the former chairman of Nyhedsavisen, the newspaper he invested in, if the newspaper closed. They sued him because he didn't pay up, and then was declared bankrupt.

According to an article in Børsen (http://borsen.dk/executive/nyhed/140074/) he said he personally invested 105 million DKK (not 10 million) in Nyhedsavisen. Money that he had loaned.

Its amazing that someone as intelligent as Morten Lund would invest every single penny into a single venture.

But I think he'll live through this...just watch his Le Web presentation...he seems really upbeat.

He's a good entrepreneur and a tech guy. What would possess him to invest heavily in a newspaper? It's so far from technology, and it's a dying industry.

Memo to anyone thinking of investing in companies: when considering in what field to invest, the word dying should be a huge red flag.

He invested in a free newspaper, not a traditional one. In a speech in Berlin he said that he is always trying to change the rules of the game. By the way newspapers aren't dead, they are just evolving.

Oh, so it had less revenue than normal. I guess it was a sound investment then.

That is cooler, but also not the wisest idea economically. Investing so much of your money based on your ideals rather than because you think it's a good idea is a good thing to do principles/karma-wise, but it does make you more likely to make a bad investment.

Yeah but that's his attitude. Have a lot of fun. Actually I doubt that can't pay his tall late anymore. This guy probably will have a lot of contacts.

"Oh, so it had less revenue than normal."

It has less kind of revenues, not necessarily less revenue. I don't know in Denmark, but in Spain free newspapers are flourishing and there's even tough competence (Metro, 20 Minutos, ADN, Que...). They live on ads and are pretty healthy.

Edit: In fact, paid newspapers here live more on ads and government aids than nominal price.

I really love this talk, I've already sent it to several friends (including a couple of McKinsey suits, ha).

I don't agree with all of the parts about strategy being pointless. There's a grain of truth -- like go with your gut or something, but he takes it too far. But it is probably worth noting that I think his end game is happiness, innovation and spontaneity versus financial success.

The things I love (and I mean love) about this are: # rollercoaster of entrepreneurship # talking about how everyday is like a recession for entrepreneurs # his general outlook on life and doing something very satisfying rather than scamming for a buck

Strange how someone can make such a stupid investment.

The bright side of the story is that it shows that anyone can hit big time -- even people with poor investment skills (in non-tech areas) like M. Lund...

is he really bankrupt if he has stock in 88 companies?

His ownership of these companies is included in the bankruptcy proceedings, and will be sold off to compensate his personal creditors.

may I ask how do you know that?

I'm Danish and it says so in the Danish newspapers :-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com