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Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

investors.squarespace.com

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Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#341

Post by _2d30 »

agrajag wrote: post #336
_2d30 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stock price up ~88% over the last two years and just valued in an all-cash deal at $6.9B. Yup, they’re right on the verge of that demise.

This is some serious cherry-picking. It's going private at a price below the initial IPO price of $48 from 3 years ago, and has generally significantly underperformed other tech stocks. They might not be about to die, but they're not exactly healthy either.

Me, demonstrating sustained performance over last 2yrs: cherry-picking.

You, choosing IPO price from the frothiest IPO environment of the last decade: elevated, rigorous, robust to outliers.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#342

Post by jadtz »

KuriousCat wrote: post #340
nicbou wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I'd like to see a web 1.0 revival, this won't happen. The traffic is controlled by Google and social networks. Most people don't have the skills needed to run their own website. A lot of valuable content is created by people without these sorts of skills.

How hard is it come up with community run maker spaces supported by the city for putting such things together? Not every thing has to be owned by large private companies.

Libraries are a good starting point for your idea, but they are already being defunded.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#343

Post by satvikpendem »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #174
armchairhacker wrote: post #127

I hear that PE destroys products and culture to make money at all costs, but i don’t get how that can net them back the >$6 billion they paid for a company with <$300 million yearly revenue and negative profit.

Squarespace spent 40% of revenue and nearly 60% of gross profit on marketing and sales last quarter [1]. You could literally generate over $200mm in free cash flow by cutting marketing in half. This is a forced pivot from growth to sustaining a good business. [1] https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001496963/d08174f...

I was in the same program as the SquareSpace founder (we went to the same college but about a decade or so apart) and that program's professor talked to the founder quite a bit about their strategy for marketing, and he was lamenting that they spent so much money on Super Bowl ads, lol.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#344

Post by rchaud »

nraynaud wrote: post #272
PedroBatista wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a pretty good sign the market is viable. You only need to "be better". And here "better", means eveything on can think of, including NOT spending money.

I'm curious, have MBAs made anything better for the masses, ever?

Couldn't you ask the same of most programmers? One way or another, everybody is pushing paper or pixels. Is the adtech developer at Google, FB, Amazon somehow morally superior to a finance bro that takes a job at Carlyle Group?

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#345

Post by idontwantthis »

volkk wrote: post #333
idontwantthis wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve thought about making my own homepage to replace my instagram/fb and share my life with my friends, but how would anyone find it? I guess I could email everyone and tell them. I’ve wondered if there is a way I could easily get that to the top of Google for my name, but there are a few famous people with my name.

does it make sense to have a "social" network that in essence is _only_ a directory? looking up someone works well, and links to some external site. full stop

I’d love something like that. Ultra low cost and simple. But I don’t know if it really has a purpose.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#346

Post by cityofdelusion »

agrajag wrote: post #336
_2d30 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stock price up ~88% over the last two years and just valued in an all-cash deal at $6.9B. Yup, they’re right on the verge of that demise.

This is some serious cherry-picking. It's going private at a price below the initial IPO price of $48 from 3 years ago, and has generally significantly underperformed other tech stocks. They might not be about to die, but they're not exactly healthy either.

Square space IPOd in a borderline delusional environment of retail investing, stimulus money, and massive free cash flow. Pretty much every IPO from that era looks awful on paper, but the companies are fine balance sheet wise.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#347

Post by klysm »

can16358p wrote: post #296
klysm wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That will show up as a prevented attack in some dashboard

But why? I'm behind a CGNAT (if that's the trigger because of possible same external IP with bots that have nothing to do with me), there's nothing I can do.

Shit code executing security theater so an executive can check a box and cover their ass. It doesn't matter if it actually works or not.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#348

Post by rqtwteye »

belter wrote: post #102
troupo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the past 10 years (or more) this has been the case with nearly every single poster child of successful US tech company. Look at YCombinator's top/most darling startups. Hardly any of them are profitable or sustainably profitable

My old fashioned view is, and notwithstanding periods of debt for grow investment, if you don't make a profit, you don't have a business.

If you have enough money, you can kill a lot of viable businesses though.

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#349

Post by CobrastanJorji »

_2d30 wrote: post #341
agrajag wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is some serious cherry-picking. It's going private at a price below the initial IPO price of $48 from 3 years ago, and has generally significantly underperformed other tech stocks. They might not be about to die, but they're not exactly healthy either.

Me, demonstrating sustained performance over last 2yrs: cherry-picking. You, choosing IPO price from the frothiest IPO environment of the last decade: elevated, rigorous, robust to outliers.

Okay, well, we can settle an accusation of cherry-picking pretty easily. Why did you pick two years?

Re: Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira

#350

Post by caycep »

renegade-otter wrote: post #60

The gold rush is over - private equity is going to squeeze every little drop from the companies that have been built and we will move on to Web 3.0 - which will be just like web 1.0 - self-hosting, link directories, newsletters, and guestbooks.

but w/ exponentially much higher compute requirements since they insist on that crypto/blockchain whizbangery
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