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Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

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Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#51

Whatever you think about Visa or this merger, this would be a major disappoint to Plaid's team members who thought they were in for a huge financial windfall. If that applies to anyone here, my sympathies and best of luck figuring out what's next for Plaid. Hopefully the morale hit isn't too big on the team.

I’m sure those wannabe monopolists will be fine and something else will come along. The rich always get richer.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, except for one point. Please don't call it a windfall. Anyone in that company that would have seen life changing amounts of money has likely put incredible effort and hard work into making this happen.

I mean, nobody reasonably joins a startup and expects to make buku bucks. It’s “unexpected good fortune” from my perspective, and certainly seems to qualify as a windfall.

"Buku"? Beaucoup?

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#53

Whatever you think about Visa or this merger, this would be a major disappoint to Plaid's team members who thought they were in for a huge financial windfall. If that applies to anyone here, my sympathies and best of luck figuring out what's next for Plaid. Hopefully the morale hit isn't too big on the team.

Uh no.

Plaid is probably worth much more now than it was when it was acquired. The entire market has become much more frothy.

I would not be surprised if it could command a $10B+ valuation as a standalone company.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#54
My guess is that that Plaid will go public via a SPAC deal now. I think it's highly likely GSAH (Goldman Sachs Acquisition Holdings) is that SPAC that does a deal. They have $750M to play with and given Visa was going to buy Plaid for $5.3B, the numbers kind of make sense.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#55
post #4

I'm surprised by this. I used to work in Foster City. The joke on the campus was that VISA stood for "Very Inconspicuous Spy Agency". You'd think that there wouldn't be this kind of miscommunication in the chain of command. All jokes aside, I'm very curious to check out Plaid now because I didn't pay attention when it was independent and Visa is a *very* smart organization, so Plaid must be something special.

>Plaid must be something special. It's not so much that Plaid is "something special" but that US banks are stuck in the 1950's technologically. Plaid shouldn't exist. It only exists because banks refuse to create open APIs for others to integrate with. With that said, Plaid has done a fantastic job.

Mercury bank seems to be a standout in this regard, promoting themselves as a "full stack" bank.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#56
post #10

Whatever you think about Visa or this merger, this would be a major disappoint to Plaid's team members who thought they were in for a huge financial windfall. If that applies to anyone here, my sympathies and best of luck figuring out what's next for Plaid. Hopefully the morale hit isn't too big on the team.

I wonder if employees with equity will see any portions of the breakup fees as some sort of bonus.

Was there a breakup fee on this one? I'd expect it's pretty standard to waive that when it's due to unforeseen regulatory obstacles.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#57
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, nobody reasonably joins a startup and expects to make buku bucks. It’s “unexpected good fortune” from my perspective, and certainly seems to qualify as a windfall.

"Buku"? Beaucoup?

Yes, it's an intentional misspelling

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment strikes a nerve with me - perhaps because it's "saying the quiet part loud". I thought the typical goal of hackers and startups was to "change the world" and "make a difference". How does selling to Visa accomplish those things? Isn't expressing sympathy with Plaid's staff for not getting a payout effectively saying "sorry that you might actually have to deliver on the lofty promises this time"? It's als…

The rank-and-file employees that work for companies like this have other goals, like buying houses and saving for retirement, it's not a single dimension. Yes, they want to help the world but not at the expense of themselves and their own financial future.

That's often true for startup founders too. However mission-driven some of us are, we still live in a capitalist world with bills to pay.

Re: Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block

#60
post #4

I'm surprised by this. I used to work in Foster City. The joke on the campus was that VISA stood for "Very Inconspicuous Spy Agency". You'd think that there wouldn't be this kind of miscommunication in the chain of command. All jokes aside, I'm very curious to check out Plaid now because I didn't pay attention when it was independent and Visa is a *very* smart organization, so Plaid must be something special.

>Plaid must be something special. It's not so much that Plaid is "something special" but that US banks are stuck in the 1950's technologically. Plaid shouldn't exist. It only exists because banks refuse to create open APIs for others to integrate with. With that said, Plaid has done a fantastic job.

This seems to be changing. Nacha (the organization that governs ACH) has been developing open APIs so that more organizations can get access to the ACH network without any dirty hacks. I would expect to see a rise in the number of personal finance applications over the next few years due to this fact.

https://www.nacha.org/content/available-apis https://www.nacha.org/content/phixius

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