Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund • Hacker News Board

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#21

Post by zizee » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:15 AM UTC

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #11

keidian wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly? Doing a mass layoff will suck regardless, but doing it by shutting down the company and making a brand new one immediately rubs me the wrong way. While no one likes to be laid off, I think people would have been able to at least hold their head high about the work they had been doing rather than the stigma of being remembered as working at OnLive before AND being out of a job. Side note: Wonder just how low…

The shutting down/new company business is essentially a convoluted form of bankruptcy[0] that allowed them to keep the lights on; out of context it looks bad but it could have been much worse. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_assignment (note this technically/legally isn't bankruptcy, but has a rather similar effect)

I don't know the full situation, but if each of those who were laid off owned part of the company it seems a little unfair for the majority shareholder to be able to sell the company to himself, leaving everyone else with nothing. What should have happened is that the company should go up for auction and the proceeds split by percentage owned.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#22

Post by notimetorelax » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:18 AM UTC

droithomme wrote: post #19

The link shows is a community fundraiser for COBRA donations to the laid off staff. It shows a bit over $55,000 in donations which came from a list of dozens and dozens of people, 52 right now. Stephen G. Perlman, the CEO is in fact in the list of donors, but it doesn't say how much each person donated. There is no indicator anywhere here that he himself donated almost everything there. Does the OP have another sourc…

There's a comment from "President/CEO at OnLive" where he wrote that he donated 50K and will donate more if needed.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#23

Post by zizee » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:18 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #5

keidian wrote: post #3

Seems like an attempt to get over some of the extremely bad press to me. While it's good for the ex-employees, it was still a really crappy thing to do in the first place.

Would it have been less crappy to shut the company down completely?

Was the company valueless when it was sold? How much did it sell for? Were the proceeds distributed fairly?

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#24

Post by droithomme » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:28 AM UTC

notimetorelax wrote: post #22

droithomme wrote: post #19

The link shows is a community fundraiser for COBRA donations to the laid off staff. It shows a bit over $55,000 in donations which came from a list of dozens and dozens of people, 52 right now. Stephen G. Perlman, the CEO is in fact in the list of donors, but it doesn't say how much each person donated. There is no indicator anywhere here that he himself donated almost everything there. Does the OP have another sourc…

There's a comment from "President/CEO at OnLive" where he wrote that he donated 50K and will donate more if needed.

OK, thanks, in my browser the comments on the donation page show up as empty.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#25

Post by hnhg » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:39 AM UTC

zizee wrote: post #20

vlokshin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^THIS. Seriously. Go write a book with this title and make millions. Take care of the people that help you on the way, of course.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?

No. It adds nothing except irritation.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#26

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:44 AM UTC

zizee wrote: post #20

vlokshin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^THIS. Seriously. Go write a book with this title and make millions. Take care of the people that help you on the way, of course.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?

^ THIS.

Of course, it's ironic that in a single breath you complain of the "^ THIS" trope, while at the same time invoking the "DAE" trope.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#27

Post by zizee » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 8:40 AM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #26

zizee wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?

^ THIS. Of course, it's ironic that in a single breath you complain of the "^ THIS" trope, while at the same time invoking the "DAE" trope.

DAE? Whoops! What is that one? My appeal to the masses? Going off topic? Talking meta?

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#28

Post by lacerus » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 9:48 AM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #26

zizee wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?

^ THIS. Of course, it's ironic that in a single breath you complain of the "^ THIS" trope, while at the same time invoking the "DAE" trope.

DAE = Does Anybody Else. I had to look it up, too. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dae

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#29

Post by icebraining » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 10:08 AM UTC

zizee wrote: post #20

vlokshin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^THIS. Seriously. Go write a book with this title and make millions. Take care of the people that help you on the way, of course.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?

It's just another word for "I agree".

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#30

Post by skilesare » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 11:12 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #12

keidian wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to dump in 50k after bad press and saying "I just added $50K to the bucket and will add more as needed" makes me cynical I guess. shrugs

It proves that he didn't put every last cent into the company, but that's a pretty high standard considering he's probably already lost millions.

Do you have any idea how many different things Perlman is involved in? If he had put every last cent into on-live our future would be worse off. Google the work he is doing in the wireless networking space(DIDO). Your iPhone 7 is probably going to run it.