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Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

cnbc.com

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Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#231

Post by porridgeraisin »

mritchie712 wrote: post #227
porridgeraisin wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atlassian essentially got a big fairly locked-in userbase that they will now squeeze using their existing proven mechanisms. Oh and they probably got a few free competent developers without needing to go through an expensive hiring process. All told, probably worth 610M.

are they locked-in tho? People loved Arc, but they killed it. Doesn't seem the reviews of Dia are all that great.

I haven't kept track for a while, but whoever I knew that used arc, they found it hard to go back to standard browsers after getting used to its various UI affordances. Even when they pulled the "you need an account" thing most people I knew just sucked it up and created an account. I am assuming a good portion of them will submit to whatever atlassian demands.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#232

Post by darth_avocado »

thor-rodrigues wrote: post #211

I’m not sure whether I find it more worrisome or fascinating that we live in a world where a company that, as far as I know, has never generated a single dollar in revenue has managed to exist for over five years, employ more than 100 people, and still get acquired for this amount. This isn’t criticism or sarcasm — I’m genuinely impressed, but also very curious about the rationale behind it.

There are some businesses that are simply not viable without losing money first. SpaceX cannot generate revenue until it first employs hundreds of people for a few years (maybe a decade) where they focus on building what will eventually bring revenue. Software has those problems too.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#233

Post by emoII »

hashbig wrote: post #230
emoII wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where can I read about this? It still gets regular updates and is front and center on the browser company website

It was put on maintenance mode with minimal security updates to favour the development of their newer product Dia (AI browser).

Damn, I really appreciate the decision to do this in a new product. Arc is the best browser I've ever used, and I'd hate to see AI features forced upon me. Thanks Browser Company!

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#234

Post by turnsout »

darth_avocado wrote: post #232
thor-rodrigues wrote: post #211

I’m not sure whether I find it more worrisome or fascinating that we live in a world where a company that, as far as I know, has never generated a single dollar in revenue has managed to exist for over five years, employ more than 100 people, and still get acquired for this amount. This isn’t criticism or sarcasm — I’m genuinely impressed, but also very curious about the rationale behind it.

There are some businesses that are simply not viable without losing money first. SpaceX cannot generate revenue until it first employs hundreds of people for a few years (maybe a decade) where they focus on building what will eventually bring revenue. Software has those problems too.

I mean this with no snark: I would love to see the investor deck that explains how an AI-powered browser is going to make any multiple of $610M.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#235

Post by youcefb »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #231
mritchie712 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are they locked-in tho? People loved Arc, but they killed it. Doesn't seem the reviews of Dia are all that great.

I haven't kept track for a while, but whoever I knew that used arc, they found it hard to go back to standard browsers after getting used to its various UI affordances. Even when they pulled the "you need an account" thing most people I knew just sucked it up and created an account. I am assuming a good portion of them will submit to whatever atlassian demands.

why not Zen https://zen-browser.app/ ?

I've found it just as good AND it's open source https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#236

Post by Pfhortune »

It has been so tragic to see the unforced downfall of this company. Arc is such an amazing browser that really did some new and interesting things. They clearly have some phenomenal talent on the team, having managed to get their swift-centric development working on _Windows_. That's a huge and difficult undertaking!

And they threw it away to work on (probably) the CEO's new fixation and threw Arc away like an old toy. And now they're selling to Atlassian and I would bet money, will just evaporate. Nothing they ever built will mean anything to Atlassian in the long term. Nobody wants to use an Atlassian browser.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#237

Post by gniting »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #218
thor-rodrigues wrote: post #211

I’m not sure whether I find it more worrisome or fascinating that we live in a world where a company that, as far as I know, has never generated a single dollar in revenue has managed to exist for over five years, employ more than 100 people, and still get acquired for this amount. This isn’t criticism or sarcasm — I’m genuinely impressed, but also very curious about the rationale behind it.

Atlassian essentially got a big fairly locked-in userbase that they will now squeeze using their existing proven mechanisms. Oh and they probably got a few free competent developers without needing to go through an expensive hiring process. All told, probably worth 610M.

Browser users are not (by default) Atlassian ICPs so IMO there's zero lock-in. I am going to most likely change my browser very shortly because I don't see Atlassian building out Arc. TBC raised $50M, they and their investors got a good return in a short amount of time. This chapter is now closed.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#239

Post by crowcroft »

rvz wrote: post #209
crowcroft wrote: post #173

The strategic insight behind Arc was perfect – your browser IS the Operating System, and so we should build a browser that can function as that platform. Arc had pretty good market validation with early adopters, they say that growth was flattened out but IMO that's normal for most products, and it's up to the company to find out WHY growth flattened and then solve that problem. Not kill the product and chase some en…

Spent more money on marketing + steve jobs cosplaying than building a browser that is better than chrome but had zero revenue for years to show for it. They betted on the possibility that OpenAI or Perplexity would buy them. With the Google monopoly suit not requiring them to sell Chrome after all, there was no reason to raise any more money as they continued to lose money. That looks like an exit on terrible terms,…

All things considered the cash looks pretty good – maybe not the deal they wanted, but doesn't look bad all things considered.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#240

Post by anon191928 »

darth_avocado wrote: post #232
thor-rodrigues wrote: post #211

I’m not sure whether I find it more worrisome or fascinating that we live in a world where a company that, as far as I know, has never generated a single dollar in revenue has managed to exist for over five years, employ more than 100 people, and still get acquired for this amount. This isn’t criticism or sarcasm — I’m genuinely impressed, but also very curious about the rationale behind it.

There are some businesses that are simply not viable without losing money first. SpaceX cannot generate revenue until it first employs hundreds of people for a few years (maybe a decade) where they focus on building what will eventually bring revenue. Software has those problems too.

yeah and what makes them different compared to half baked fraud startups with no revenue ? most of the world would not believe that they will bring revenue in years?
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