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Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

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Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#101

Post by nopzor »

riantogo wrote: post #69
gimmeThaBeet wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really insider trading. Matt Levine pops up here all the time, and one of the really distilled mantras he has: inside trading isn't about fairness , it's about theft . Like the people who track flights to speculate on M&A, or use satellite and aerial imagery to look at parking lots. Gathering information isn't a crime, in fact gathering and acting on that information is explicitly what you want at an aggre…

And that exactly is the problem. The game is rigged in favor of folks who already have access to information (or can afford to buy it), not available to regular folks. That is how billionaires double their billions faster than me essentially playing lottery/roulette with my $1000 on Robinhood.

i don't really agree with your point. better information leads to better price discovery for the 'game' at large for longs and shorts (including for unsophisticated robin hood investors). it isn't just about who can 'afford' to buy it; often times it's just about being smarter, or being willing to ask questions that nobody else is asking.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#103

Post by CalChris »

objclxt wrote: post #38
a13n wrote: post #27

It's pretty interesting that FAANG doing venture capital is basically like legal insider trading. They clearly have data on web traffic, consumer usage, advertising spend, etc. that other VC firms and investors generally don't have access to. They can use this to understand entire markets, see who the incumbents are, estimate revenue/users, see who's up-and-coming, etc. Obviously within some margin of error. I wonder…

> Since startups aren't publicly traded, I don't think insider trading laws apply to trading their securities. FAANG is legally allowed to use their access to information to make better investing decisions than other companies are able to Insider trading laws apply to all companies, be them public or private. It is illegal to trade based on undisclosed material information the other party doesn't have - the law doesn…

That's not insider trading when the startup buys back stock and has more information than the employee has. It might be something else but it isn't insider trading. Now if the CEO was buying the stock rather the startup, that would be insider trading.

Insider trading is an individual crime.

https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-ba...

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#104

Post by tomdell »

ISL wrote: post #74
riantogo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that exactly is the problem. The game is rigged in favor of folks who already have access to information (or can afford to buy it), not available to regular folks. That is how billionaires double their billions faster than me essentially playing lottery/roulette with my $1000 on Robinhood.

There is probably a useful fact that you know that billionaires don't. It is probably local or related to your technical expertise. Peter Lynch famously researched companies by watching to see where his family spent pocket money. I recall reading analyses of trading performance by members of Congress -- they generally did about the same as everyone else except in companies associated with their districts. Anecdotally…

On the large scale, wealth reliably collects progressively higher percentages of return the higher the base capital.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#105

Post by scollet »

raverbashing wrote: post #68
ChicagoDave wrote: post #2

I wouldn't take a penny from Facebook. You know they will lock down any patent you create and steal your IP.

And? You'd probably walk away with at least 6 digits in your bank account. 7 or maybe 8 if you're lucky. This is the kind of money I wouldn't say no except for a very good reason.

Money > ethics in your worldview? This is compounding the issue and creating a toxic incentive.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#106

Post by missedthecue »

riantogo wrote: post #69
gimmeThaBeet wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really insider trading. Matt Levine pops up here all the time, and one of the really distilled mantras he has: inside trading isn't about fairness , it's about theft . Like the people who track flights to speculate on M&A, or use satellite and aerial imagery to look at parking lots. Gathering information isn't a crime, in fact gathering and acting on that information is explicitly what you want at an aggre…

And that exactly is the problem. The game is rigged in favor of folks who already have access to information (or can afford to buy it), not available to regular folks. That is how billionaires double their billions faster than me essentially playing lottery/roulette with my $1000 on Robinhood.

If you truly believe this, buy Facebook stock

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#107

Post by ergocoder »

gentleman11 wrote: post #94
ergocoder wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the sarcasm? Most of the times, acquirehire by these top companies is probably better than being a regular senior FAANG engineers. Not sure why that is bad. It's probably not the top of the world (e.g. billionaires). But it's definitely a great situation to be in.

There’s more to it than money, as the regretful WhatsApp founder showed by leaving a fortune on the table to escape

Sure, it's not the best situation that a human can ever imagine.

But let's not exaggerate. It's not bad for whatsapp founders. Better than 99.9999999999% of the population (maybe add a couple 9s at the end).

For me, I don't even wanna make a single donation because I need to save every dollar. I can't join any protest or get involved in any politics because I'm already busy enough with my own life.

Whatsapp founders now have 6,000,000,000 USD to power the change they want to see happen. Ok, maybe 5B, as they might want to keep 1B for living cost.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#108

Post by shostack »

ericflo wrote: post #79
hvaoc wrote: post #44

This will not work. If they are that good with information, they must be building products after products that people will love. Tell me one last known successful launch by Facebook in the last 2 years, outside tweaking their existing products. Only way it could work is if they share their wealth in other areas / people which must be invested in and will not get enough capital if not for them. Ex: Google Venture - So…

> Tell me one last known successful launch by Facebook in the last 2 years Oculus Quest

And that's just them getting started. I watched the entire video of last Oculus Connect and it was jaw dropping what they are going for and how much progress they've made. Like, Rainbow's End made real.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#109

Post by kortilla »

a13n wrote: post #27

It's pretty interesting that FAANG doing venture capital is basically like legal insider trading. They clearly have data on web traffic, consumer usage, advertising spend, etc. that other VC firms and investors generally don't have access to. They can use this to understand entire markets, see who the incumbents are, estimate revenue/users, see who's up-and-coming, etc. Obviously within some margin of error. I wonder…

Gathering data != insider trading.

Re: Facebook establishing a venture arm to invest in startups

#110

Post by kortilla »

blocked_again wrote: post #82
ISL wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably a useful fact that you know that billionaires don't. It is probably local or related to your technical expertise. Peter Lynch famously researched companies by watching to see where his family spent pocket money. I recall reading analyses of trading performance by members of Congress -- they generally did about the same as everyone else except in companies associated with their districts. Anecdotally…

> There is probably a useful fact that you know that billionaires don't. It is probably local or related to your technical expertise. Well, the people working for Billionaires should be able to figure that out right?

No, it’s not worth it for them to spend $50k in someone’s salary getting them up to speed on the local culture of a place to discover a trade that might be worth 150k.
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