> Both apps have been downloaded just over 1,000 times on the Google Play Store. The company had raised about $20 million in 2020. $20K per free app download?
that's not too useful ratio isn't it? investment is going to be lumped at the onset
Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
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Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#112> Both apps have been downloaded just over 1,000 times on the Google Play Store. The company had raised about $20 million in 2020. $20K per free app download?
that's not too useful ratio isn't it? investment is going to be lumped at the onset
I'm not criticizing.
I think these 2 apps were experiments.
They probably wanted organic downloads only, in order to identify real user needs / find PM/F.
Otherwise, it's hard to explain why they wouldn't spend money on marketing/advertising.
Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed; and when you don't want the brand it's even more ideal. We saw a few months ago an example of the "new company" buying the brand and the assets but not the liabilities, including some suckers who bought "lifetime" subscriptions[1] from the old owners that they allegedly didn't even disclose, and which legally speaking weren't the liability of this random unrelated company which just bought the assets and the…
Publisher's Clearing House went through bankruptcy and stopped paying "lifetime" annuities from before reorganization. https://apnews.com/article/publishers-clearing-house-bankrup...
That’s true, though I don’t think there’s going to even be a successor there to keep selling magazines under the PCH name.
The company that I’ve forgotten was selling some kind of software offering.
Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#114A lot of misunderstanding here about "why would you invest in someone who has failed?" An investor is a gambler. Not just on past success, although I'm sure Marissa has had some successes even if people don't know them. They gamble on: 1) Has this person got the experience (good or bad) to run a business. A failed business leader is a better gamble than someone with no experience. 2) Does this person have a strong ne…
Could there also be 7) Can I sell or offer something to this new company and prop up my other parts of my portfolio?
aka "loss leader" or "supporting the ecosystem"
e.g. VCs invest in startups commercializing open-source foundational/infrastructure projects not only for the financial RoI, but also because it helps their portfolio companies succeed faster while maintaining a smaller headcount or spending less on non-core R&D.
Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#115Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was there too. The Alibaba investment is what doomed Yahoo. Investors wanted their money and didn't care at all about Yahoo's core business.
would you explain a bit more? Investor in Yahoo only cared about Alibaba?
Yahoo made a $1b investment on Alibaba early on, and Alibaba was growing a lot, investors couldn't directly buy Alibaba, so they bought Yahoo hoping to eventually cash in.
Yahoo was valued at $44b at one time, and the $1b it put in Alibaba was valued at $40b. So 90% of Yahoo was the Alibaba investment. There was a whole spin off core business to separate it from the investment part drama, years and years of distraction and investors and board people who wanted their ~40x instead.
Re: Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was there too. The Alibaba investment is what doomed Yahoo. Investors wanted their money and didn't care at all about Yahoo's core business.
would you explain a bit more? Investor in Yahoo only cared about Alibaba?
August 11, 2005: Yahoo acquires 40 percent of Alibaba.com for $1 billion, and Alibaba takes over the operation of Yahoo China.
Yahoo Japan was also a joint venture between Yahoo and Softbank, with Yahoo holding about 50% of the ownership.
At some point, Yahoo stock was regularly trading at or below the estimated value of the overseas holdings. The part of the company that actually did stuff was valued at zero or less. In the acquisition, yahoo stockholders got cash for the operating business plus shares in holding company formed around the overseas holdings ... Over time, the holding company sold the holdings and distributed the proceeds to shareholders and ceased operating.