Goodbye, Twilio

Post by jononomo » Wed, Jun 21, 2023, 1:00 PM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #149

el_nahual wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do stock buybacks enrich investors at the cost of employees ? They are (almost identical) to a dividend, which yes, enriches shareholders but a) that's kind of the point of a business b) especially in startups employees are often shareholders as well, and meaningfully so c) even if they weren't, how do they hurt employees?

Stock buybacks represent excess profits which otherwise could be used for employee bonuses or salary raises. There's a lot of room for argument here, because it's not clear if in the absence of stock buybacks, that excess profits wouldn't go more directly into the pockets of the owners via direct capital withdrawal. But it's not an entirely invalid viewpoint. There really is a lot of room for reasonable minds to disa…

Post by xctr94 » Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 2:01 PM UTC

jononomo wrote: post #351

reaperman wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stock buybacks represent excess profits which otherwise could be used for employee bonuses or salary raises. There's a lot of room for argument here, because it's not clear if in the absence of stock buybacks, that excess profits wouldn't go more directly into the pockets of the owners via direct capital withdrawal. But it's not an entirely invalid viewpoint. There really is a lot of room for reasonable minds to disa…

There is no such thing as "excess profits" -- people start businesses and invest in businesses in order to get rich. Anything less than "excess profit" isn't enough profit.