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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

#61

Post by madeofpalk »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

> I thought the typical goal of hackers and startups was to "change the world" and "make a difference"

I care so little about "changing the world" or "making a difference". Those things don't pay the rent.

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

#62

Post by rconti »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

I've been through 1.5 IPOs and 1 acquisition.

In only one of those cases, did I join the company expecting an imminent-ish liquidity event. One hit me out of nowhere. Regardless of what you're planning on, and even if the dollar amount isn't that great, it's a huge rush, a lot of thinking about the possibilities. It would suck, at the very least, on an emotional level, to have that fall apart.

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

#63

Post by [deleted] »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by jerry80 »

rizpanjwani wrote: post #29
madamelic wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Never used Plaid but didn't they require your banking credentials and also didn't have a very secure mechanism for storing them?

Yes. Plaid can be used to verify banking details (many stock brokers use it for this, for example).

Plaid works by asking the user to give their banking username and password to Plaid, and then their two factor authentication token too. Plaid logs into their account behind the scenes to verify ownership.

Plaid claims to not store this info, and I assume that they don't, but it still seems like one of the biggest security anti-patterns ever. If nothing else, it's training users to ignore the "don't share your password" warnings. Do we really want users trained to be more susceptible to phishing?

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

#66

Post by marcinzm »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

>I thought the typical goal of hackers and startups

Hackers and startups are two very different groups with very different ideologies and goals and incentives. No idea why you group them together. Some startups have no technical founders even.

>"change the world" and "make a difference"

Startups are businesses and like all businesses in the end they wish to make money. VCs, for example, are very clearly investors and not philanthropists. They are high risk, high reward businesses which means they need to change things to get those returns but in the end they are a business.

>How does selling to Visa accomplish those things?

It gives Plaid financial stability and long term platform for its technology. If its technology makes the world a better place then its continual existence does make a difference.

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

#67

Post by psanford »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

Visa was going to pay $5.3b dollars for Plaid. I don't really think you can say that that is "small startup ambitions."

Is YouTube a failure? Is Instagram a failure? How about Github or Linkedin? There are reasons to remain an independent company, but there are also reasons that it might be better to be acquired. Besides the premium that the acquirer will pay, large companies can actually accelerate your growth while also insulating you from a lot of the pesky overhead of being a public company.

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

#68

Post by phpsuks »

sshah1983 wrote: post #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.

Or may be PSTH.

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

#69

Post by monkeydust »

RobRivera wrote: post #27
paxys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll get some $$$ out of it, and I have no doubt that they have a solid future as an independent company. The fintech sector is red hot right now. Heck they might even be able to catch the next IPO wave.

SPAC SPAC SPAC SPAC SPAC

Not sure why that was downvoted, there is a glut of funded SPACs and more on horizon who would love to take Plaid public.

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

#70

Post by alecbz »

AlexandrB wrote: post #28
jamestimmins wrote: post #5

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.

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…

Honestly I sort of agree with your sentiment, but I have some sympathy because many people who join early startups do it at comp deficits, and believing you're actually going to make a significant return on your investment only to suddenly realize you're not is pretty shitty-feeling no matter what.
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