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Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

nautil.us

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Re: Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

#31

Post by unlinked_dll »

yowlingcat wrote: post #13
unlinked_dll wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think ownership groups aren't uncommon in the small business world (as in not-startups, like family businesses). Totally different world but that's how sports teams' acquisitions are handled these days.

Wow, that's fascinating -- I don't know too much about sports team acquisitions but it's pretty cool if that's how they work. If this is something you know more about, would you mind going into more detail about how that works?

Historically teams (in the US) have been owned by a single person.

But today, a sports team acquisition involves a 10-figure transaction and possibly the construction of a stadium if there's a move, which could also be in the low 10-figures.

There are not that many individuals who can afford to buy a team by themselves. That's why they form ownership groups with a lead investor to be the "owner" face of the team (and sometimes, they'll get big names as minority stakeholders to give them legitimacy). An example of this is when an ownership group bought the Miami Marlins [1].

[1] https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/boston-red-sox/derek-jeter-...

One difference with sports teams is that some members of the ownership group do it for vanity/ego/pride as much as an investment opportunity. There's a lot of prestige in having ownership of a major sports franchise, not only because it's incredibly expensive but because the opportunity to purchase a stake is not common and the entire ownership group is subject to approval from all the other owners in the league. So you can't just buy a team, you have to be ok'd by all the other teams.

Re: Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

#32

Post by kristjankalm »

pokler wrote: post #22
kristjankalm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And we all know that consumers don't fork enough money to support ads-free journalism, which leads to perverse incentives. yes they do. susbcription-based models are doing quite well. besides the big heavyweights, in UK alone there are several smaller and successful subscription-based magazines: the TLS, the economist, the spectator etc. in us sports there's 'the athletic' and its clones.

> several smaller and successful subscription-based magazines: ... the economist, ... Maybe I am misreading, but did you mean to imply that The Economist is a 'small' newspaper? It has been around since the 1840s.

compared to the best known subscription success stories -- the NYT, WP -- it certainly seems significantly smaller. but i agree, that comparison isn't very valid, it's certainly a heavyweight amongst magazines.

Re: Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

#33

Post by eigenrick »

pokler wrote: post #22
kristjankalm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And we all know that consumers don't fork enough money to support ads-free journalism, which leads to perverse incentives. yes they do. susbcription-based models are doing quite well. besides the big heavyweights, in UK alone there are several smaller and successful subscription-based magazines: the TLS, the economist, the spectator etc. in us sports there's 'the athletic' and its clones.

> several smaller and successful subscription-based magazines: ... the economist, ... Maybe I am misreading, but did you mean to imply that The Economist is a 'small' newspaper? It has been around since the 1840s.

"Old" doesn't mean "Large".

However, in this case you're right. They have 1.6 million subscribers, 50% are digital.

Interestingly, a 50% digital rate probably puts them far above all of the other "Old" periodicals.

Re: Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

#34

Post by [deleted] »

seren wrote: post #9

This is the second time I see a link on HN, mentioning Hypergiant industries. Their website [0] and their algae bioreactor page [1] is so over the top that it looks fake. I assume this is real company selling real solutions (consulting) but this is puzzling nonetheless. Look at the case study, "ROD LIFT INVENTORY SYSTEM" [2], they replaced a few excel sheets by an application with a database, this is great for the cu…

[deleted]

Re: Nautilus to be acquired by an investor group of fans

#36

Post by ehnto »

yowlingcat wrote: post #4
unlinked_dll wrote: post #2

"Group of fans" is a weird way to describe serial entrepreneurs and angel investors. I'm sure they like the product. There's only one person on that list without a background in finance/investing, who happens to be the spouse of another person on the list. Congrats on the exit, I just think it's odd to describe the acquiring party that way.

Is it? While "syndicate" might have been a more succinct and accurate way of describing that group, it is a little bit uncommon. From most instances I can recall, acquisitions tend to be by a single corporate entity or a private equity fund of some kind. Unless such an entity existed prior to this acquisition, it does seem a bit out of the ordinary.

It made me think it was a group of intrepid readers who got together to invest, which is a much more interesting story than career investors being a fan of a thing they're investing in.
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