General > General Technical Chat
Linus Sebastion Turned Down $100M Offer
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Bud:
I get no understanding what is the value of this channel. If it disappears tomorrow there will be Zero impact on technology or relevant computer skills. Kudos to Linus managing to build such Nothing Burger.
nctnico:

--- Quote from: mawyatt on May 25, 2023, 03:31:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on May 25, 2023, 03:09:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: mawyatt on May 25, 2023, 03:03:49 pm ---Admire him and his vision :-+

His comments about "Selling Out" are spot on  :clap:

--- End quote ---
Don't think so. As a business owner it is better to sell out and cash in when the chance arrives. I know quite a few who didn't sell and saw their 'fortune' evaporate to zero. As a business owner, number one is yourself. Learn not to care about people in the sense that they are family of some sort. Qualified people will always find a good job (and are likely to leave at some point anyway) and there is also the possibility to start something new with members of the team that don't like the new management and/or are laid off. One of my former employers sold the company for good money and nowadays he employs many of the old staff.

As Linus is stepping down as CEO, there will be new management so from a functional perspective he should cash in anyway.

--- End quote ---

Obviously you've never been there and done that, we have :-+

We sold out in 2006 for $25M, and should have held out for more (long story).

--- End quote ---
You mean you have  8) But your claim is that you sold too early. Ofcourse you can always debate valuation of your company and hope for more (which may never come). Good investors however, set predefined targets for when to buy / sell shares in order not to get carried away and start to make emotional instead of rational decissions. On top of that, it looks like you valued the technology you have developed much higher than what the market was willing to pay for it. Otherwise it would have been used in products instead of being pulled from the market as a precaution.
mawyatt:

--- Quote from: Marco on May 25, 2023, 03:32:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on May 25, 2023, 03:09:38 pm ---Don't think so. As a business owner it is better to sell out and cash in when the chance arrives. I know quite a few who didn't sell and saw their 'fortune' evaporate to zero.

--- End quote ---
Only a risk if they didn't run a substantial profit or reinvested everything and gave themselves a pittance for salary.

He said he was already rich so presumably that was not the case for him. If it goes tits up he will have lost the chance of being filthy rich and will have to settle with being plain rich.

--- End quote ---

Yep, not everyone aspires to be a Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, or Bill Gates!!

Interestingly we all discuss about how short term thinking is what's it's all about in business today, few if any CEOs are long term thinkers and most adhere to Wall St and Share Holder values, like quarterly returns and stock value!!

Yet many of us here, ourselves included, worked our way thru college flipping burgers, mowing yards, painting houses, repairing TV & Stereos, whatever it took to stay in school and survive. Now what kind of thinking was that? We all could have got better paying 8-5 jobs and forgo college! We didn't, we were all long term investing in our future, not short term pocketing more $ with less life stress!! Yet some of these same folks that made that long term investment for college now are making the short term decisions in most companies.

Long ago when we were proposing for investment $ in a local university lab we had a projector slide preparation (yes, that long ago, PP wasn't around then!!), we looked around the room of executives, from MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, USC, RTI and so on and realized the presentation was hopeless, so we didn't present the slides and used the above long term college investment as a challenge to each and everyone in the room!! Ironically this resonated (at least for awhile) and we got the substantial funding requested :-+

Best,
mawyatt:

--- Quote from: nctnico on May 25, 2023, 03:55:44 pm ---
You mean you have  8) But your claim is that you sold too early. Ofcourse you can always debate valuation of your company and hope for more (which may never come). Good investors however, set predefined targets for when to buy / sell shares in order not to get carried away and start to make emotional instead of rational decissions. On top of that, it looks like you valued the technology you have developed much higher than what the market was willing to pay for it. Otherwise it would have been used in products instead of being pulled from the market as a precaution.

--- End quote ---

These weren't investors, but major tech companies. There were 3 majors involved after a failed attempt by IBM to acquire us (long story about disgruntle employee trashing the deal). The sale involved the 1st to offer the minimum acceptable bid, without allowing the others to submit a "Best and Final", as we found out after the sale, there were some back scene shenanigans going on with some of the principles (another long story).

As Mulder and Scully said, "Trust No One"!!

Best,
Bud:

--- Quote from: mawyatt on May 25, 2023, 03:59:42 pm ---Yep, not everyone aspires to be a Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, or Bill Gates!! 

--- End quote ---
Speaking of which, we are going to the Cinema tonight to watch "Blackberry", about the rise and fall of Research In Motion company, the manufacturer of Blackberry devices.
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