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Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

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Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#81

Post by webwright »

richcollins wrote: post #62
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

Next was profitable. OS X and iOS are Next. Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?

Next was profitable? Do you have a source for that? They raised hundreds of millions of dollars and sold 50,000 units. In '93, Canon plowed a second investment in to keep them afloat. Even with the new $, they laid off 300 of 540 employees. They couldn't sell their hardware operations and went pure software. I'm not saying they toss out all of the tech, but calling NeXT profitable is just plain false. It was a failed company with great leadership. Certainly there was some technical value in the deal, but much of the $429M paid was for Jobs and the people he had working with him.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#82

Post by kenrikm »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #32

The lesson here is social applications go in and out of style and entrepreneurs must really entertain early acquisition offers when they are hot.

That's not always an option. Check out this Article (also on the HN front page) http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics...

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#83

Post by webwright »

anon808 wrote: post #57
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

"Could Sam and his group have $43M in impact for the buyer?" what do you mean by impact? how can this even be measured? "If your "leadership brand" number is high enough, you just about can't lose. " again, what does leadership brand mean? And what does it have to do with building a business that earns money/makes profit (revenue - expenses). Just because something/someone has market or exchange value, doesn't mean t…

"But saying there's some higher form of value that 'brands' bring that has nothing to do with building profitable businesses is disingenuous."

Where the heck did I say that? I said building profitable businesses is a formula and leadership/brands are a multiplier in that (very complex) formula.

I'm saying that A-Players with great brands have value. It's pretty hard to unravel that value. What's the financial impact of bringing Jobs back to Apple? What was the financial impact of Google buying Android? What would the financial impact be if I was running Square instead of Jack Dorsey? There's no way to know. But you can't disregard the impact of great people because you can't precisely measure it is wrong.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#84

Post by earbitscom »

Harj wrote: post #54

I've been incredibly impressed by Sam since he started as a part time partner at YC, as have all of the founders. Greendot are lucky to have him and his team.

Seriously...been getting a lot of help from Sam lately and it's unbelievable how insightful the guy is. If I had a billion dollars, I'd pay $43M to have Sam in my corner. ;)

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#85

Post by webwright »

underwater wrote: post #64
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

> Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS [...] Guys like this attract A-players and attract PR. What about the minor things like, you know, making money? They took 17 million in funding and failed. But that's OK because they're buddies with the VC's and can try, try again.

You should consider your tone here. It's unwarranted. You literally know nothing about what went on here, know nothing about the value that they're are getting (patents? team?).

Is it okay/smart for Facebook to buy/hire a team of 4 engineers for $8M or is that because they are buddies with VCs? I assume Loopt had an engineering team of 20+. Is it that out of bounds to think that that (plus patents and perhaps some tech) could have an eventual financial impact of more than $43M?

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#86

Post by blasterford »

webwright wrote: post #85
underwater wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS [...] Guys like this attract A-players and attract PR. What about the minor things like, you know, making money? They took 17 million in funding and failed. But that's OK because they're buddies with the VC's and can try, try again.

You should consider your tone here. It's unwarranted. You literally know nothing about what went on here, know nothing about the value that they're are getting (patents? team?). Is it okay/smart for Facebook to buy/hire a team of 4 engineers for $8M or is that because they are buddies with VCs? I assume Loopt had an engineering team of 20+. Is it that out of bounds to think that that (plus patents and perhaps some te…

If the team were worth that much, then they would have made Loopt astoundingly profitable in the last 7 years, and we'd all be using it.

Judge people on their success/failure. Not on what other people think of them.

Loopt was a flawed, quickly obsoleted idea. That was pretty obvious from the outset.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#88

Post by blasterford »

webwright wrote: post #81
richcollins wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next was profitable. OS X and iOS are Next. Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?

Next was profitable? Do you have a source for that? They raised hundreds of millions of dollars and sold 50,000 units. In '93, Canon plowed a second investment in to keep them afloat. Even with the new $, they laid off 300 of 540 employees. They couldn't sell their hardware operations and went pure software. I'm not saying they toss out all of the tech, but calling NeXT profitable is just plain false. It was a failed…

Jobs already had a clear previous success under his belt. Does Loopt?

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#89

Post by blasterford »

cft wrote: post #56
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

Blogger was sold to Google for $5mm, not as buddy exit, but as a regular exit. I guess Loopt has eight times more potential.

And that's why they're shutting it down!

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#90

Post by ajju »

The world of payments has already changed dramatically with technology companies from Square to even Groupon essentially building a way to "pay with your phone".

To continue succeeding, currently successful but "old world" payment companies like Green Dot need to become technology companies. Given Loopt's stellar team, Green Dot couldn't have chosen a better company to acquire. I have been fortunate to receive advice/help from both Sam and Nick, but read "Shit Sam Altman says" and you'll know how smart these guys are. http://anandkulkarni.posterous.com/-sam-altman-says

It also seems to me that the demographics of Loopt users overlap nicely with the demographics Green Dot wants to target. A head start of 1M+ users in the demographic you are targeting is very valuable.

Congrats Loopt!

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