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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

#181

Post by mynameisvlad »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #165
itslennysfault wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this for about a decade (ending about a decade ago), and eventually gave up and went to gmail. I agree that it is a really easy thing to do and maintain, BUT when it did (rarely) break it was always at the worst possible time. The day a client was sending an important document. While I was on vacation. Etc. I probably only had to drop everything to fix my email server a handful of times, but that handful of tim…

I currently use google but am thinking seriously about self hosting. For those few times could the clients send it to you via WhatsApp?

“Please send me that critical requirements document over WhatsApp, my email isn’t working” is a terrible thing to hear from a vendor/partner/etc.

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

#182

Post by judge2020 »

msoad wrote: post #178
pier25 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Wix, Webflow, and others already. Seems pretty crowded.

Most young folks don't understand URLs anymore? "Find us on App Store" or "Find us on Social Media" is the new internet. QR codes that takes you directly into a walled garden is the new web.

Id argue that QR codes are doing pretty well at keeping bespoke URLs alive (although it pains me to see people use qrco.de or other qr code generators that automatically shorten the URL and thus could, at any point, maliciously redirect people to ads or malware instead. I don't see bitly doing this but it's unnecessary risk).

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

#183

Post by makeitdouble »

Dowwie wrote: post #150

In other words, it's a great time to build the next Squarespace.

Would it have gone private if it was such a great business at this moment ?

Squarespece looked like a fairly competent company, even as they were perhaps overspending on advertisement. Their competitors don't seem to be doing that much better except for Automattic perhaps.

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

#184

Post by throwaway5752 »

ants_everywhere wrote: post #54
dpflan wrote: post #22

Has the trend of PE owning things increased in the last decade? Has PE gotten more money in the past years so that they can hoover up companies?

IPOs have been declining for a while, which leaves private sale as a more attractive alternative. Here's an article from last year, but if you search "IPO drought" in a news search engine you can find a lot of more recent articles https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/02/0...

Squarespace is going private, it is already public: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SQSP/

The lack of IPOs is not from market demand, it is just easier to be private. If there are venture firms willing to invest or the debt market is accessible, then there is no need to for a company to go public.

Generally speaking, private equity sales are not more attractive than IPOs.

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

#185

Post by robertlagrant »

adtac wrote: post #124
insane_dreamer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it has to be high enough to give the board enough cover that they're doing their fiduciary duty to existing shareholders

Maybe I'm missing something basic but that still doesn't explain why it's 30% and not 50%. I don't think purely qualitative arguments work here.

> Maybe I'm missing something basic but that still doesn't explain why it's 30% and not 50%.

It's like tipping. There's no ideal value that can be picked; just agreed normal values. If 30% appears to work most of the time then that's probably why it's used.

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

#186

Post by phonon »

armchairhacker wrote: post #127

I hear that PE destroys products and culture to make money at all costs, but i don’t get how that can net them back the >$6 billion they paid for a company with <$300 million yearly revenue and negative profit.

Next step is they buy out Squarespace's competitors. Then they move everyone to the same platform, after cutting expenses by 50%, and doubling prices. I assure you there is a spreadsheet somewhere that runs through all this....once that is done, they do an IPO in 5 years to cash out.

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

#187

Post by JumpCrisscross »

whimsicalism wrote: post #179
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how they get people to loan them money when they know that they are just going to strip mine the company Because on average, target firms of leveraged buyouts become more productive [1]. That lets them pay back shareholders and lenders in most cases. The reason public perception is off is the size effect and availability heuristic. The first shows that big deals do badly [2]. The second means the last widely-report…

Public perception is negative because profitability is usually reached by cutting unnecessary jobs and projects in the poorly run firm. People don’t like their jobs being cut

> Public perception is negative because profitability is usually reached by cutting unnecessary jobs and projects in the poorly run firm

I think private equity-induced lay-offs seem to create more negative PR than corporate ones, but I have no hard numbers.

(Private equity in healthcare has also been an unmitigated disaster, which obviously doesn't help its image.)

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

#188

Post by sroussey »

makeitdouble wrote: post #183
Dowwie wrote: post #150

In other words, it's a great time to build the next Squarespace.

Would it have gone private if it was such a great business at this moment ? Squarespece looked like a fairly competent company, even as they were perhaps overspending on advertisement. Their competitors don't seem to be doing that much better except for Automattic perhaps.

Yes. Private equity likes cash making business machines.

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

#189

Post by PedroBatista »

pier25 wrote: post #161
Dowwie wrote: post #150

In other words, it's a great time to build the next Squarespace.

There's Wix, Webflow, and others already. Seems pretty crowded.

Which is a pretty good sign the market is viable.

You only need to "be better".

And here "better", means eveything on can think of, including NOT spending money.

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

#190

Post by kevinmchugh »

msoad wrote: post #178
pier25 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Wix, Webflow, and others already. Seems pretty crowded.

Most young folks don't understand URLs anymore? "Find us on App Store" or "Find us on Social Media" is the new internet. QR codes that takes you directly into a walled garden is the new web.

I see people using "linktree" to crosslink all their different social media accounts together and it really bums me out in a way I can't describe.
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