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Comment by vips7L | Hacker News Reader

I discovered last night that my company's stock price is higher than Ubi's and we've lost 75% of our value over the last few years. Doesn't seem good.

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Stock price by itself is meaningless. Instead what you want is market cap (number of shares x share price).

that's not how stock prices work. look at the market cap or the multiple of it over revenue / profit / employees / whatever comparable metric

It's anecdotal, I'm not asserting anything about how stock prices work. I merely pointing out something I didn't expect. Jesus I hate this forum sometimes.

The problem is that comparing two stock prices is meaningless; it's comparing apples to oranges. People are commenting that your conclusion (Ubisoft's stock price is less than our stock price, which dropped 75%, so Ubisoft has a problem) is a logical fallacy. This is the finance equivalent of a divide by zero error.

Jesus Christ it’s not a logical fallacy. Ubisoft does have a problem. They’ve lost 95% of their value. Outside of that I was merely commenting about my surprisal that a house hold name like Ubisoft was doing so poorly. Stop taking things in such absolutes.

It's not that people are taking things in absolutes. I think everyone agrees that stock price siding so far is a very bad sign.

You specifically made a direct comparison between your employer's and Ubisoft's absolute stock prices. That's what people are calling out, and for good reason. It is fundamentally not possible to compare stock price directly like that. Literally meaningless.

Stock prices as lone numbers are completely arbitrary. If a company feels that the price per unit is too high or too low they can even do merges and splits, ie multiplying the number of shares by an arbitrary value of their choosing.

he's angry at being misunderstood and is acting rude, but your comment is right on. It's such a commonplace thing to say (even if they don't really mean it literally) that I wish there was a really quick and clear way to reply. mainstream news, for instance always summarizes market moves in number of points on the DOW which is the same sort of thing if you don't all know the denominator.

maybe saying it's comparing +1 Euros to +5 Yen? of losing 1 tablespoon vs 2 teaspoons? or 5/10 to 1/2?

Fuck you. I'm angry you autists can't read or have a conversation outside of trying to always be right.

No I’m fucking not. I have clarified what I meant and you still have disregarded that. Please stop. Learn to evolve a conversation past the first post and leave me alone.

AGAIN: I was merely commenting my surprisal that a household name like Ubisoft was doing so poorly.

we're all here to communicate with each other - please hear us : you are using this in a way that is preventing your meaning from getting through because of a technical (the best!) error. we're gently trying to correct the misunderstanding (if that's what it is), or give you the feedback that you're not making sense otherwise.

There is no misunderstanding. I know the difference and have clarified that. I’ve clarified that I was merely surprised at how bad Ubisoft is doing — which they are.

You’re not reading the words I’m typing. Please stop trying to communicate with me.

Just curious, why do you stick around on a sinking ship?

Finding a job is hard and I'm picky about the technology I work in.

Thanks for the reply. Wishing you luck, in either your company turning around or a new opportunity finding you.

Thanks :) I've been applying but it feels like yeeting my resume into the void. I'm also staff level and those roles are fewer to come by. I suspect that I will have to settle for a higher paying senior role, which may not be that bad.

Market cap pls

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