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Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

investors.squarespace.com

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Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#91

Post by QuarterReptile »

nicbou wrote: post #77
renegade-otter wrote: post #60

The gold rush is over - private equity is going to squeeze every little drop from the companies that have been built and we will move on to Web 3.0 - which will be just like web 1.0 - self-hosting, link directories, newsletters, and guestbooks.

As much as I'd like to see a web 1.0 revival, this won't happen. The traffic is controlled by Google and social networks. Most people don't have the skills needed to run their own website. A lot of valuable content is created by people without these sorts of skills.

If the web progresses in a bad enough direction, it will happen.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#92

Post by npalli »

blackhawkC17 wrote: post #14

It must be nice for the founder to pocket $2 billion in cash from selling his company. For users, on the other hand, I'll hardly trust a PE firm with a SaaS product. There's just too much incentive to jack up prices to service the debt taken to acquire Squarespace, and cut costs on customer support and building new features.

It's true that PE firms cannot be trusted with a SaaS product. It is also true that most SaaS companies are not profitable for the service they provide at the revenue they derive. This reset, which we will see a lot of since the entire SaaS category has to be re-priced, is the scalable way to clean up companies (why are SaaS employees paid so much?, why are customers paying so little etc..) and put them on a sustainable path. This trend will continue to grow.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#93

Post by troupo »

rqtwteye wrote: post #74
belter wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going from their financials, Squarespace makes no money: Revenues of $281.1 million for Q1 with Net Income of $0.1 million so it can be rounded to $0. They have debt of $556.9 million so yes, for the founder being able to pass on this pig with lipstick is great. Permira is well known for what was their management approach with AA in the UK, so for the employees this will probably mean massive layoffs soon. https://ww…

Something is really wrong in this market when even a "successful" company like Squarespace deson't manage to be a profitable business.

If you look at the past 10 years (or more) this has been the case with nearly every single poster child of successful US tech company.

Look at YCombinator's top/most darling startups. Hardly any of them are profitable or sustainably profitable

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#94

Post by ziddoap »

The timing of this is borderline malicious. My domain was just transferred to Squarespace from Google on April 24th, which means that I cannot transfer it for 60 days. This news means I want to transfer it -- I'm sure I'm not the only one -- so it's awfully shitty of them to wait until just after domains were transferred to announce this.

While I was previously on the fence about keeping my domains with Squarespace, mainly because of laziness, this announcement and the timing of it means that I will be transferring my domains the minute I'm allowed to.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#96

Post by lotsofpulp »

blackhawkC17 wrote: post #81
lotsofpulp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the source for the $2B figure? The most recent SEC filing shows the founder owns 2.8M class A shares, and there are 88M shares of class A shares outstanding and 48M shares of class B shares outstanding. I do not see why they would pocket 28% of the sale price. https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001496963/5ba2ffc... https://investors.squarespace.com/news-events-financials/inv...

> As of December 31, 2021, the Reporting Person’s beneficial ownership consists of: (i) 387,500 shares of Class A Common Stock and 2,050,838 shares of Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value per share (“Class B Common Stock”) held directly by the Anthony Casalena 2019 Family Trust, for which the Reporting Person is the trustee, and > (ii) 4,930,175 shares of Class A Common Stock and 40,835,572 shares of Class B Commo…

Thanks, I assumed all holdings would have been reported on Form 3 and 4 under the beneficially owned section.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#97

Post by chii »

ethbr1 wrote: post #56
throwaway12301 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soon, most of the engineering and support will be over in India. I'd make a joke about innovation, but not sure how innovative Square has been the last five years.

> I'd make a joke about innovation, but not sure how innovative Square has been the last five years. Honestly, isn't that a great match for PE? Once a company has run its innovation sprint, convert it to keep-the-lights-on and cut costs. In return, PE gets to buy a revenue stream.

The unsaid thing is that the customer signed up to squarespace is going to get less value for their dollars. Profit has to come from somewhere, and it aint innovation as you said.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#98

Post by smallmancontrov »

nicbou wrote: post #77
renegade-otter wrote: post #60

The gold rush is over - private equity is going to squeeze every little drop from the companies that have been built and we will move on to Web 3.0 - which will be just like web 1.0 - self-hosting, link directories, newsletters, and guestbooks.

As much as I'd like to see a web 1.0 revival, this won't happen. The traffic is controlled by Google and social networks. Most people don't have the skills needed to run their own website. A lot of valuable content is created by people without these sorts of skills.

That's a function of technology. It would absolutely be possible to integrate something like Nextcloud into operating systems or devices. It will never happen, because every party in a position to do such an integration is also in a position to become a middleman and extract money, which is much more profitable.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#99

Post by airstrike »

berkeleyjunk wrote: post #2

It is interesting how most M&A transactions trend to have a 30% premium above the trading price. I have tried to investigate why but could not find a good explanation to why this number is so prevalent.

buyers and sellers have a range of values where they are OK transacting, and historically those ranges has tended to overlap at the 30% point more than at, say, the 15% point

because of those precedents, taking anything below a "standard" premium opens the door for shareholders suing the board for a breach of their fiduciary duty, arguing they should have waited for a better offer. it's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. pay more than 30% and the buyers' shareholders will argue the same

which is not to say there aren't 10% or 80% premium transactions, but there's a higher bar to be met before everyone is willing to go outside of the 25-40% premium range (my own numbers)

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