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IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

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Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#171

Post by recursive »

riversflow wrote: post #168
BizarroLand wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also like how we are attaching these people to this company as though the Weekend and Taika Watiti sat down and sculpted a plan to get rich by being dickheads. I bet their portfolio managers did that, and then attached their names to the deal to lend it an air of credibility, probably negotiating some sweet bonuses and spiffs for themselves in the process, and now this reads like they're all a POS, which, while tha…

If you have money and it ends up funding dickheads, congrats you are also a dickhead. The more money you have the less forgivable it is, simply because more money buys you better insight.

Why is it that owning stock in a company implies support for their actions? If you own stock, you may be able to vote on their future direction.

I can see how owning stock is a bet on the future success of a company, but not an endorsement. Maybe I don't understand stocks.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#172

Post by bigbluedots »

ipaddr wrote: post #126
lormayna wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy Meetup was monopolized by a populistic political movement in the '10s and nobody use it since then.

Aside from supporters of popular political movement?

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#173

Post by BizarroLand »

prepend wrote: post #164
BizarroLand wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also like how we are attaching these people to this company as though the Weekend and Taika Watiti sat down and sculpted a plan to get rich by being dickheads. I bet their portfolio managers did that, and then attached their names to the deal to lend it an air of credibility, probably negotiating some sweet bonuses and spiffs for themselves in the process, and now this reads like they're all a POS, which, while tha…

People need to be aware of their investments. If I buy shares in Phillip Morris, then I better be ok with people smoking cigarettes and everything that entails. Especially if I’m publicly attaching my name with “prepend supports Phillip Morris.” There’s gradations of being a dick, but approving your portfolio managers plan to buy shady companies is still a dick move. So is not being aware of what your portfolio manag…

No, you're right, but I think maybe I didn't communicate my thought well.

I'm not absolving them of their participation in bendingspoons and other such companies, I'm saying to not forget that it's the soulless portfolio managers that are the minds that move the body of evil.

I do blame them for their participation, but not as much as the people offering them the opportunity to profit from the exploitation of others.

It's like the Bernie Madoff "victims". A bunch of them were in on it to some degree so they could make a quick buck. I have no more sympathy for them than they do for me.

But the majority of the people who both profited and lost from Madoff were people who were letting their 401k retirement plans be managed by a company which were ultimately being used to fund the scheme.

Not a one of them likely knew that this was how their money was being used and they are all actually victims.

The real jerks are the stockbroker portfolio managers. If they didn't offer to enable rich-jerk douchery for fun and profit, it wouldn't be a thing they were all doing.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#174

Post by detourdog »

jkubicek wrote: post #80
detourdog wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can choose what they thought they were referencing. They don't get the opportunity to tell others what to infer.

True, but considering the popularity and age of The Matrix, I'm guessing most people assume the hot tech company is referencing techno futurist movie from the 90s and not a charlatan from the 70s.

beleive it or not I haven' t seen the matrix or related series. There is a possibility I may have seen the original.

I have known about psychics claiming to bend spoons seemingly forever

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#175

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #95
kramerger wrote: post #42

I feel if an app changes ownership, all users should automatically be notified by the app store.

> an app changes ownership Unfortunately defining what that means becomes rather tricky once you consider that the company owning the app can change ownership. That ownership can be shared and go through arbitrarily many indirections, and if it's a publicly traded company, some of its shares change ownership all the time.

For public companies, it is extremely easy. Just start off with a warning every time certain filing (Section 13) is made. You could conceivably do this automated.

For private, large companies, its a simply attestation. You could open source monitoring for changes - if the company makes an PR announcement of any kind , or if a member of the public reports submits proof of change of control exercise in their contract, ask the company to update their attestation and compare.

They don't provide it ? They get a nice little red banner alerting users of shadiness going on.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#176

Post by imaurer »

cs702 wrote: post #85

Investors in Bending Spoons include musician The Weekend, tennis player Andre Agassi, movie star Bradley Cooper, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and director/actor Taika Waititi, among many other famous people: https://bendingspoons.com/people (scroll to the bottom to see all names). I wonder if any of these illustrious backers are aware of the true business model of Bending Spoons, which can only be described as sca…

How'd they get both Chainsmokers?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#177

Post by jeff_tyrrill »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #95
kramerger wrote: post #42

I feel if an app changes ownership, all users should automatically be notified by the app store.

> an app changes ownership Unfortunately defining what that means becomes rather tricky once you consider that the company owning the app can change ownership. That ownership can be shared and go through arbitrarily many indirections, and if it's a publicly traded company, some of its shares change ownership all the time.

I think the legal concept of "beneficial ownership" is the intent here: We want to know the ultimate (natural) person(s) who control the app's assets and for whose benefit the app is monetized.

There is no simple rule that can be applied at scale. Determining beneficial ownership requires a case-by-case review of not just the chain of legal ownership, but management, contracts, incentives, etc.

Any fixed rules can be gamed. For example, a company could license out its name as a "franchise" who is legally independent but whose franchise contract has so many arms of control that they de facto function as a single company. Another example is that a majority donor of a nonprofit controls the nonprofit even if they have no board seats or de jure power to appoint or fire board members.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#178

Post by Fezzik »

recursive wrote: post #171
riversflow wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have money and it ends up funding dickheads, congrats you are also a dickhead. The more money you have the less forgivable it is, simply because more money buys you better insight.

Why is it that owning stock in a company implies support for their actions? If you own stock, you may be able to vote on their future direction. I can see how owning stock is a bet on the future success of a company, but not an endorsement. Maybe I don't understand stocks.

I think owning stock is a financial endorsement of what the company is actually doing- you own a fraction of the company and saying ‘I just want a return on my money, no matter what the company does’ does not absolve you from actually financially supporting bad actors. If I hoist you in to a building to steal something I am endorsing your behavior. Same thing.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#180

Post by acdha »

dmurray wrote: post #158
acdha wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those scenarios aren’t the same: those photos are a literal state of fact, not an endorsement. SpaceX can say they fly NASA missions because that’s a provable fact that they were awarded a contract to do so and anyone who wants to search the public procurement records could verify that. Where they (and NASA employees) would get into trouble would be saying that NASA thinks they’re the best, or that you should give th…

That seems like a very reasonable law, but it's not consistent with what was linked above and what other commentators are saying really is "the law". > You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted. No exemption made for photos…

I think this is more confusion around language for something which isn’t quite that simple. The page that quote is from is a summary, not the actual statute, and each agency will have different policies, as well as terms written into contracts for actual procurements. In general, I’ve found literal statements of fact to be uncontroversial (e.g. if you say X.gov uses Y, and anyone who looks at sam.gov can confirm the same), but it gets increasingly more likely to raise challenges the more it looks like a recommendation, especially if it includes superlatives about the product or service.

Anyway, if this is remotely relevant, get a lawyer and ask the agency in question since they’ll likely have some nuances.

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