ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares • Hacker News Board

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#121

Post by mjburgess » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 12:54 AM UTC

jessedhillon wrote: post #102

mjburgess wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, they aren't the same as "unreflectingly capitalistic" and "pre-occupied with monetary success". They have become inextricably linked. Maybe early in the 19th C. you'd be right. After the rise of american industry and maufacture and its corresponding propaganda (edison, etc.) AND after the cold war, "capitalism", "democracy", "patriotism" all became intertwined. Such that today The American Dream is almost…

The extent to which you have littered your own biases throughout this thread, and then expected everyone to regard them as the true interpretation, is absurd and childish. If that's doesnt read hollow and pathetic to you I dont know what could. It's complete mythologising of two people "building" a company, it's display of hurt feeling over the fact that $10bn doesnt impress people enough, its utter pre-occupation wi…

We'll I've commented three times thus far to direct replies.. I wouldnt say that was "littering".

> To an American it's obvious that two people didn't personally build the company

Yes, but it's also obvious who gets the credit (, and who doesnt).

> I'm amazed you can't find one positive interpretation to agree with

Sorry I dont find the acquistion of wealth anything to celebrate in itself and that's the point of the article.. so no, obviously i dont think there's a positive interpretation here and it isnt "cynicsm": it's reading it without buying into its assumptions.

> But we should not blame Americans for this. Americans do the right thing, they recognize and celebrate success. The blame is exclusively with Europeans who are still uncomfortable and envious with big exits

Yes Americans do the right thing and "celebrate success", they try not to tax "job creators" and make sure "hard working risk takers" get the "credit they deserve". Ideological, all of it.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#122

Post by pippy » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 3:26 AM UTC

mmahemoff wrote: post #9

No-one cares primarily because it's not a consumer product. If Pinterest was Spanish and sold for $9.5B, you'd know about it. See also: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/03/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Also from the article:

    Google buys Spanish Ono for $9.5bn to start Google Fiber throughout Europe

Vodafone won't be rolling out ultra fast fiber networks. They'll be putting everything through a cost-benefit exercise to maximise profits. Essentially just a fish being eaten by a bigger fish.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#123

Post by oblio » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 8:42 AM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #74

genofon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" richest and most powerful country in the history of the world..." not even close http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pre-modern_great_powers

So many disagree with this proposition because it does not convey the meaning you apparently intend. "Most powerful" might conceivably be a relative measure, but there's no way that "richest" is. Most nations of Europe (probably not Moldova, Slovenia, and a few others), on both a total and per capita basis, consume much more than anyone on that list. In a military contest most modern European nations would by more co…

> Most nations of Europe (probably not Moldova, Slovenia, and a few others), on both a total and per capita basis, consume much more than anyone on that list.

Be careful with Europeans, they get pissed off easily. Slovenia has a GDP (PPP) per capita of $28,195. While that's half of the US it is actually a lot, they're definitely not subsistence farmers in Mali. You cannot really compare it with Moldova - $4,182. First world versus close to third world :)

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#124

Post by johnchristopher » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 10:22 AM UTC

This article is just part of the propaganda for the coming european elections.

Spain has much bigger worries than the plebe not caring about telcos tycoons buying each other's companies for such astronomical amounts of money.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#125

Post by jessaustin » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 7:04 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #123

jessaustin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many disagree with this proposition because it does not convey the meaning you apparently intend. "Most powerful" might conceivably be a relative measure, but there's no way that "richest" is. Most nations of Europe (probably not Moldova, Slovenia, and a few others), on both a total and per capita basis, consume much more than anyone on that list. In a military contest most modern European nations would by more co…

> Most nations of Europe (probably not Moldova, Slovenia, and a few others), on both a total and per capita basis, consume much more than anyone on that list. Be careful with Europeans, they get pissed off easily. Slovenia has a GDP (PPP) per capita of $28,195. While that's half of the US it is actually a lot, they're definitely not subsistence farmers in Mali. You cannot really compare it with Moldova - $4,182. Firs…

Point taken, but I already knew Slovenia > Moldova because hockey. I only qualified Slovenia because my statement was "total and per capita", rather than "per capita" only. It was probably still unnecessary, since even though they have a small population most historical empires did as well.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#126

Post by borski » Tue, Mar 11, 2014, 6:35 AM UTC

foobarqux wrote: post #94

borski wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risk is relative. For a broke college student to quit school, move across the country, have no (or little) income, all for an idea that they have no clue will work is a huge risk. In the same vein, someone quitting their job after having already committed to car payments, house payments, and alimony is also a huge risk.

He went to Philips-Exeter. He wasn't exactly broke.

Yes, in this single case, that is true. I, and many of my peers, went to public school. I was broke.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#127

Post by tripzilch » Wed, Mar 12, 2014, 11:04 AM UTC

dap wrote: post #99

mjburgess wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have this thing called "The American Dream" and you have an entire cultural history tied to self-motivation, entrepreneurship and "pushing the frontier"... Clearly every single american isnt subject to the same cultural pre-occupations, that's absurd. But there are only certain cultural phenomena possible in one place or another. A right-wing party in the UK could not even begin to use any of the ideas or rhetori…

> A considerable amount has been written by the european experience of america and an almost ubquitious theme in the accounts is "the feeling of unlimited possibility", an ostentatiousness and pre-occupation with wealth, etc. You say "etc." there like those two things are related in some way and a reader could figure out how to extrapolate. Surely the feeling of unlimited possibility does not entail ostentatiousness…

> Out of curiosity: if Americans are prototypically self-motivated and desire to make money, push the frontier, explore, and invent, and that Europeans don't (as a culture) dream of those things, do Europeans have widely shared dreams? What are they?

There aren't any. "Europeans as a culture" simply does not exist. It's just a bunch of very different countries with very different cultures that decided to make a union.

The only difference I've found that holds between the USA and the whole of Europe[0] is that our price-labels all list the price after taxes. I found that quite weird. But they all get to have some unique quirks, so otherwise your culture is very recognizable in the sense that it might as well be another EU country :P

[0] someone is bound to correct me on this, I haven't been to all of the EU countries.