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Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

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Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#51
post #40
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They backed a couple hilariously bad bets in a big, public way, and people like feeling smarter than rich strangers. The two things are related. The public visions for these companies went beyond the standard startup platitudes about 'making the world a better place'. Regular people can see through that, because they don't live in an SV bubble where playing along with this sort of hubris is encouraged. I don't thin…

> I don't think anyone thinks they're smarter than Softbank or Adam Neumann. With all the armchair investing going on, you would think otherwise.

[deleted]

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#52

Can I ask a stupid question?' I kind of did a Rip Van Winkle and stopped reading Techcrunch for eight years. Back in the day I would email Alexia and she would take the story tip and write a cool article. Is TC 100% pay to play nowadays? I know so many people who submit press releases to them and they get auto-deleted. What gives?

I don’t know much about their readership numbers but I stopped reading them as well roughly 8 or so years ago. Maybe their readership broadened and even increased?

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#53
post #39

Damn, this list keeps growing and growing ... https://layoffs.fyi/tracker/

Yes, but stocks are ripping higher on much worse jobless claims, housing starts, and Philly Fed numbers than expected, 113 unexplained cases of reinfection in South Korea, and the PPP fund being completely tapped out with three weeks to go in Congress' recess. The market is fully convinced that everything is fixed.

That's not what the "market thinks" at all. The stock market is much more complicated than you assume it is. But if you want a really simple explication: 4t$ more in circulation chasing the same amount assets, interest rates make it non viable to hold bonds, and you don't want to buy bonds anyways if you expect a more inflationary economy. If there's expectations of inflation, you go for stocks and if there's inflation AND 0 interest rate, you RUN for stocks.

You can also think of it this way, retail investors can afford staying in cash indefinitely but make up a tiny portion of the capital. Big money NEEDS to either buy bonds or park their capital in any yielding asset. Right now treasuries offer safety but negative real yields for probably a long time. But a pension fund still needs to generate returns to pay it's beneficiaries. So what's the best and cheapest option right now, by far? Stocks. You have to keep in mind that prices are relative so if stocks are relatively cheaper than bonds you buy stocks. Now add 4t$ to that and you get a stock market that stays strong even if everyone in the market knows the huge economic risks we are facing right now.

Never assume that a whole entire sector that has so much incentives to price in all the available data would just ignore something because they feel like it. I don't get how people really believe that.

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#54
post #52

Can I ask a stupid question?' I kind of did a Rip Van Winkle and stopped reading Techcrunch for eight years. Back in the day I would email Alexia and she would take the story tip and write a cool article. Is TC 100% pay to play nowadays? I know so many people who submit press releases to them and they get auto-deleted. What gives?

I don’t know much about their readership numbers but I stopped reading them as well roughly 8 or so years ago. Maybe their readership broadened and even increased?

It's still good but it seems more like focusing on publicly traded companies. I'm not bashing them, I just don't see the "weird Internet" or "weird startup" content anymore. But then Quibi ships and you see nothing but Quibi for a few days. It's just not how I remembered TC.

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#55
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is. They backed a couple hilariously bad bets in a big, public way, and people like feeling smarter than rich strangers. I would be curious, though, if there are other funds with similar scope and track records to Vision 1 that have just managed to skate under public scrutiny thus far.

It's not just a couple, and the way they did it is notable. They over-capitalized companies in key sectors like logistics, transportation, robotics, etc. They pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars per round of funding even when the company might not have needed it (with the threat being "we'll heavily fund your competition if you don't take our deal). Their thesis was to monopolize a few sectors with sheer money…

"with the threat being "we'll heavily fund your competition if you don't take our deal"

Well, I've read that in some cases, they heavily funded the competition anyway. Which is something else people made fun of them for.

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#56
post #15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is. They backed a couple hilariously bad bets in a big, public way, and people like feeling smarter than rich strangers. I would be curious, though, if there are other funds with similar scope and track records to Vision 1 that have just managed to skate under public scrutiny thus far.

> They backed a couple hilariously bad bets in a big, public way, and people like feeling smarter than rich strangers. The two things are related. The public visions for these companies went beyond the standard startup platitudes about 'making the world a better place'. Regular people can see through that, because they don't live in an SV bubble where playing along with this sort of hubris is encouraged. I don't thin…

Neumann walked away with billions, didn't he? Others may have lost vast amounts, but on net, you can't say he suffered.

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#57
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ Nationwide downturn in house prices” there’s nothing certain about that happening. Look at 2001. It may.. but all the free money being thrown will prop up prices some. Plus supply in the tank because people aren’t moving. https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2018/06/real-house-prices...

Lenders have already tightened up loan requirements which will decrease the demand part of the equation. It is the same thing that happened during the great recession. People may want to buy, but have no ability to do so. There's also the high unemployment rate and foreign investors liquidating inventory for capital because their country is also going through a downturn. All the ibuyers have stopped purchasing. If th…

That said I believe the drop after 2008 should have been more significant. The massive amount of cash the government pumps into markets, it allows massive amounts of dark/shadow inventory that would cause further price drops if the market was transparent.

Re: Opendoor is cutting 35% of its employees

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just a couple, and the way they did it is notable. They over-capitalized companies in key sectors like logistics, transportation, robotics, etc. They pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars per round of funding even when the company might not have needed it (with the threat being "we'll heavily fund your competition if you don't take our deal). Their thesis was to monopolize a few sectors with sheer money…

"with the threat being "we'll heavily fund your competition if you don't take our deal" Well, I've read that in some cases, they heavily funded the competition anyway . Which is something else people made fun of them for.

> Well, I've read that in some cases, they heavily funded the competition anyway.

This was the case with their investments in ride-sharing companies globally.

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