71–80 of 1001 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of a for profit company is to provide a good or service and profit from doing so. You don’t need to be acquired to accomplish that.
Yes. But when you're driven by the idea of exit striving towards such things becomes ultra focused. Put another way, exit is the ultimate recognition that these purpose(s) have been acheived.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of a for profit company is to provide a good or service and profit from doing so. You don’t need to be acquired to accomplish that.
> provide a good or service > profit from doing so Is the first actually a requirement? I can think of plenty of companies that do the second part well, but have nothing to do with the first one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The entire purpose of starting a company is to get acquired. Of the literally hundreds of companies that YC has invested in, only 5 have gone public. The VC market will dry up even more if they see their chances of an exit diminishing because of an overzealous government.
I think the state of “build to be acquired” is actually pretty gross and I wouldn’t mind it being pruned back a bit. To call this “overzealous government” is a bit ridiculous. Figma being acquired by Adobe was not good for customers, in most cases the government just allows shit like this to happen, this is the exception, not the rule.
There's a $1B fall through fee, I assume that gets paid to Figma now? I wander if that will make its way to early employees who were hoping for a liquidity event.
I would expect that to only get paid if solely one side were responsible for blowing up the deal. This is expressly saying both have mutually agreed.
“On December 17, 2023, the Company and Figma mutually agreed to terminate the Merger Agreement and entered into a mutual termination agreement effective as of such date (the “Termination Agreement”). The mutual termination of the Merger Agreement was approved by the Company’s and Figma’s respective Boards of Directors. In accordance with the terms of the Termination Agreement, the Company will make a cash payment to Figma in the previously agreed amount of one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) (the “Termination Fee”) within three business days following the date thereof. The Termination Fee is the sole and exclusive remedy under the Merger Agreement, and the Company and Figma have each waived any and all other claims in connection with the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby.”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the same way that animal cruelty laws is bad for the cock-fighting market. Is the "M&A market" a valuable market worth having?
Do companies like YouTube and Instagram get started and funded less frequently if the climate evolves to “it’s impossible to have large mergers approved”? It’s a bit like asking in 2009 if the secondary mortgage market is a valuable market worth having. It provides significant good (IMO) to support real estate transactions.
But, I don't think that YouTube or Instagram are an inherent moral requirement for society, so I don't think it's the end of the world if they never existed.
Given how Adobe's last purchase of a drawing program (buying Macromedia ten years after being told to wait a decade after buying Aldus and it being split off to be acquired by Macromedia and then off-shoring Freehand/MX to India and then burying it), good.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The purpose of a for profit company is to provide a good or service and profit from doing so. You don’t need to be acquired to accomplish that.
You are mistaken. The purpose of a company is to make a profit and provide a good or service. In that order. Everything else is a hobby.
That has changed, especially since the 80s, where the prevalent world view turned to "let's have the market figure out purpose", which equates to anything that is profitable is good.
We've since learned that this isn't automatically true (as exemplified in this abandoned merger, for example), and my understanding is that right now there's no clear opinion in society whether profit or purpose comes first in companies.