349 karma · joined November 27, 2010
- secondary transaction with the preferred shareholders (VCs) at some price that implies a 20b valuation
- founders quit and get new employment agreements
- some cash is transferred to the company as a license fee
- no acquisition means no DOJ approval
in this scenario the headline can be $20b but the cash expense can be much lower, you have full flexibility to direct whatever cash or equity you want to founders vs the rest of the company, as an up front payment or as retention/salary, and the founders have no hinderance from working on anything they touched at previous company because of IP license.
I actually bet this is how it went down. This is becoming the standard in the industry and it's just awful for the future of SV
So if VCs are getting paid a certain share price, employees with vested stock almost certainly are getting the same price. And probably employees with vested options can either exercise now or will just get paid the net during the transaction.
Yes, the company is probably doomed so people staying there are not doing well, but they also just got paid a 3x premium on their vested equity.
That doesn't mean this is this kind of conspiracy
Also, I wouldn't call making recommendations in home feed a growth hack, fwiw.
"FX swap markets, where for example a Dutch pension fund or Japanese insurer borrows dollars and lends euro or yen before later repaying them, have a history of problems."
Isn't this false? If we do a swap nobody borrows anything, we just agree to track the returns and pay the difference in one direction or another. An FX forward does the same thing, but actually involves borrowing from a bank, which is why the swap is easier.
Anyway that's my understanding
Anyway, headline is sensational enough that I'm not willing to read the article
Google Q2: 70B, ads: 57B, cloud 6B. Net profit: $16B
Amazon Q1: 117B, ads: 8B, cloud 18B. Net profit: -$4B
if someone has to defend their tech by using analogy to the early web, it's probably bullshit
Maybe it's different with a poison pill in place as the onus is on the board, but I don't think its obvious what the board should/will do