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What Happened with Supermicro?

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Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#11

Post by theklub »

lsc wrote: post #2

Huh. so shortly after the story broke, I bought a bunch of SMCI. (It's actually the first OTC stock I've ever bought. It was easier than I thought, too... I had to call vanguard to enable OTC trading, but after that? super easy.) I sold it months later, at a pretty good profit, mostly 'cause while I think the bloomburg accusations are clearly false, there are huge accounting irregularities surrounding supermicro; get…

When you take this into account it makes me wonder what the motives could be... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18162440 (bloomberg paying based on market movement)

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#12

Post by jandrese »

pmilla1606 wrote: post #8
jandrese wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a theory going around that the whole story was just and elaborate stock manipulation scheme.

But orchestrated by who? Surely not Bloomberg as they'd have too much to lose. And if you have the means to do something like this, why not do it in a more subtle way that doesn't have people asking questions 6 months later? I'm not suggesting you're wrong and I have no clue what happened.

Who knows? Presumably whomever wrote the original story for Bloomburg and made the photos is involved somehow but beyond that it's anyone's guess.

What is Bloomburg going to lose here? Their reputation? They're already considered something of a gossip rag for financial news. FTC action? Unlikely.

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#13

Post by nullc »

lsc wrote: post #2

Huh. so shortly after the story broke, I bought a bunch of SMCI. (It's actually the first OTC stock I've ever bought. It was easier than I thought, too... I had to call vanguard to enable OTC trading, but after that? super easy.) I sold it months later, at a pretty good profit, mostly 'cause while I think the bloomburg accusations are clearly false, there are huge accounting irregularities surrounding supermicro; get…

> Huh. so shortly after the story broke, I bought a bunch of SMCI.

Likewise. Almost doubled my money before taxes.

My reasoning was that essentially no tech infrastructure company has significantly suffered financially due to security incompetence and it was unlikely that it would start with SMCI especially since it wasn't even being claimed that the company was in on it. Nothing even seemed to allege any particular error on SMCI's part, certainly not one that essentially every vendor isn't also making.

The idea that the report could be wrong wasn't a factor for me, only that the marketplace would continue to not care. (I find it hard to believe that it's entirely wrong: I am unwilling to believe that major state intelligence orgs are so incompetent that they are never backdooring hardware in that manner).

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#14

Post by nullc »

rb808 wrote: post #10

from https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/02/super-micro-move-chip-pr... > Server maker Super Micro is moving production out of China in a bid to allay US customer's concerns about spying, even though independent tests have shown no evidence of cyber espionage. The company has also announced its plans to expand its own in-house manufacturing facilities to help mitigate any perceived risks. A spokesperson for the company…

LOL

NSA Guy: Damn, we could infiltrate that target if we could get in implant in their boards but all their systems ship directly from china.

CIA Guy: Don't worry, I've got this.

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#16

Post by jsgo »

rb808 wrote: post #10

from https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/02/super-micro-move-chip-pr... > Server maker Super Micro is moving production out of China in a bid to allay US customer's concerns about spying, even though independent tests have shown no evidence of cyber espionage. The company has also announced its plans to expand its own in-house manufacturing facilities to help mitigate any perceived risks. A spokesperson for the company…

Typically not one for conspiracy, but I wonder if to some degree these kinds of things are intended to get US customers to buy US products and/or get companies to move their offshore facilities to the US. Kaspersky being hand-in-hand with Russia and with China and things like it seem pretty run of the mill in recent years.

I imagine it is nestled in some degree of truth, grant you, but I wonder if the goal is to force sentiment so heavily that vendors are essentially forced to go stateside. As in, did China suddenly want to exert state control over manufacturing done in China? Russia suddenly want data from Kaspersky?

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#17

Post by clay_the_ripper »

Somewhat unrelated: we used to do a lot of business with supermicro. In a meeting one time I asked one of their guys why their billboards are so weird looking (anyone who’s driven down 880 past their building knows what I’m taking about). They have these billboards that have weird slogans and super amateur looking graphics that look like they were made in MS paint.

So I asked the guy about them cause I thought it was funny that such a big company had such cheap looking marketing. And he said: “yeah our CEO couldn’t believe how much money some agency was going to charge us to design a marketing campaign, so he just did it himself on his computer in like 2 days”

I thought that was hilarious. But good on the CEO for realizing no one really cares what a server billboard looks like, and decided to save the $2MM or whatever someone was going to charge him for design. Super funny.

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#19

Post by WillPostForFood »

geofft wrote: post #18

Bloomberg lied to serve US political interests because the US is terrified that China is legitimately competitive and is playing dirty. They're doing the same thing with Huawei now.

Why do that to a company based in San Jose? Much more likely it is just bad reporting, compounded by tech ignorance. The US government is very open about its critique of Huawei, why would they secretly and illegitimately attack Supermicro, Apple, and Amazon?

Re: What Happened with Supermicro?

#20

Post by blululu »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #17

Somewhat unrelated: we used to do a lot of business with supermicro. In a meeting one time I asked one of their guys why their billboards are so weird looking (anyone who’s driven down 880 past their building knows what I’m taking about). They have these billboards that have weird slogans and super amateur looking graphics that look like they were made in MS paint. So I asked the guy about them cause I thought it was…

The best photo I could find: http://meritage-partners.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2016/05...

I love that old school Silicon Valley aesthetic.

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