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Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

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Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#31

It blows my mind that a chat client is worth over 26 times what Boston Dynamics is.

It's always easy to overvalue products/services that are based on number of users than on actual improvements in a narrow but highly technical field with a super-high barrier of entry.

The number of active users is one of the most enticing metric a VC firm can lay its eyes on.

Edit: For context, the parent comment is talking about Salesforces' acquisition of Slack [0]

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/01/salesforce-buys-slack

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#34

A neat reminder that most Mergers and Acquisitions are money losing and that robots on legs are a neat idea but mostly useless

Legs are an over-engineered solution if your only use-case is a nice, flat surface. Outdoors, or even indoors with random flights of stairs thrown in, they make sense as a robust and effective solution.

That’s why I said mostly

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#35

It blows my mind that a chat client is worth over 26 times what Boston Dynamics is.

In theory, it’s because the marginal cost of software is close to zero, and margin is the biggest driver of value. In practice most of these companies’ margins are negative.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#37
post #29

I realize Korea is an ally, but this seems like tech we wouldn't want to lose the domestic capability to produce. Or tech we wouldn't want to cede the lead on. Why would Darpa pour so much money in for this outcome?

Even DARPA’s hindsight isn’t 20/20.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#38

It blows my mind that a chat client is worth over 26 times what Boston Dynamics is.

Me too, though I urge everyone to avoid jumping from a gut feeling to judgements about what each “should” be worth without being explicit about the philosophy that determines your “should”.

There are lots of ways to determine value. I do not think that we are ever going to come to a consensus on the best one, but at least we can strive to understand and be understood.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#39

It blows my mind that a chat client is worth over 26 times what Boston Dynamics is.

How much value is created by the chat vs by the robots? How many more users does the chat have?

Yes, "value". This is why making free market dynamics an ideology/religion is insane.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics for nearly $1B

#40
post #9

Makes sense. South Korea, where Hyundai is based, has by far the most robots per manufacturing employee [1]. They will make good use of the technology. [1] https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f719cf9f44...

Feels like we said this about previous buyers. All I'm seeing is another sucker to keep the money rolling for more of these sweet viral robot demos that never seem to materialize into much of anything.
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