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IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

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Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#71
post #5

They recently acquired Meetup as well [1]. This doesn't bode well for its future. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242

Meetup needs an alternative anyway. They shove ads in your face, and the app is buggy.

Alas all (web) software shoves ads in your face, and all software is buggy. ;(

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#72
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. Purely anecdotal and it may just reflect the company I keep, but Meetup seems to have dropped off my radar and that of people I know. I can easily believe that many groups paused during the pandemic and never kicked back off again; I've certainly seen that behavior with a lot of groups generally.

Here it was charging for RSVPs that killed it. Everyone dropped it like a hot potato when they announced it.

It can be tough to get people to pay an ongoing fee for something that's often used for people to do casual recreational activities rather than one of the many free alternatives--even if they're not quite as suited for the purpose.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#73
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, they even acquired Evernote and fired the entire staff. I hadn't heard about that.

Yeah, they did that. The app is not going "downhill" yet, however if they start to ruin it for good, I'll be moving out. I was not planning to do that, and I don't wish that they force me to do that.

> eah, they did that. The app is not going "downhill" yet,

Isn't that because there's not much further the Evernote app can fall?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#74
Bending Spoons also bough Evernote a while ago. Pretty much doubled the price.

With that I thought they could go stuff themselves and went to unsubscribe, but they offered a drastic discount if I didn't. So they managed to keep me for another year. :/

But if they don't get their Python SDK in order soon I might drop them anyway.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they did that. The app is not going "downhill" yet, however if they start to ruin it for good, I'll be moving out. I was not planning to do that, and I don't wish that they force me to do that.

> eah, they did that. The app is not going "downhill" yet, Isn't that because there's not much further the Evernote app can fall?

For my use case, the app is not half bad, except it's being Electron. The underpinnings hold so well, because .enex format is good, and the application understands Markdown formatting cues for the most part.

Also, the professional plan has GPS tagged notes, which I tend to like. Evernote doesn't have much alternatives for what I use it for. Notion doesn't work offline, Obsidian is too information dense and not easy to collaborate with. I use Obsidian + publish for my digital garden, but it doesn't work well for other things I use Evernote for.

I never had the data loss people mentioned about, either.

Lastly, I don't care about AI stuff in either Evernote or Notion. I neither trust the tech, nor I consent to train these "things" with my data.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#76
post #46
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s allowed without permission per: https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright Specifically, “Endorsement, trademarks, and agency logos You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted. You also cannot use federal gove…

Is that the law, or is that more the government saying, through its publicists, how it would like its image to be used? Seems crazy that, say, an outdoor clothes retailer couldn't share a photo of a group trek where the park ranger was wearing its gear. Or that SpaceX couldn't publish a photo of NASA astronauts flying in its spacecraft - even with NASA's permission.

Those scenarios aren’t the same: those photos are a literal state of fact, not an endorsement. SpaceX can say they fly NASA missions because that’s a provable fact that they were awarded a contract to do so and anyone who wants to search the public procurement records could verify that. Where they (and NASA employees) would get into trouble would be saying that NASA thinks they’re the best, or that you should give them your business, too. It’s the idea that the reputation of a public agency is being committed to boost a private business that causes the legal concerns.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#77
post #4

i'm not sure i quite understand the situation. is the implication that bending spoons is some kind of private equity firm but for apps that will suck the soul out of these 17 apps? i haven't heard of this company before but browsing their site at least the marketing speak points towards it not being the case... could someone explain?

They’re not private equity… they’re like a bottom tier tech conglomerate that’s been growing rapidly lately. They most famously bought Evernote. They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market. They also harvest data from the apps and resell it.

> They buy apps/products that mature and don’t need a lot of work, fire all the workers and hire a skeleton crew to manage them in a cheaper labor market.

What's wrong with rightsizing workforce to be commensurate with work?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#78
post #10
post #5

They recently acquired Meetup as well [1]. This doesn't bode well for its future. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242

And Evernote almost 2 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33623402

Obsidian, logseq, or even org-roam are evernote replacements?

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a reference to the Matrix movie

They can choose what they thought they were referencing. They don't get the opportunity to tell others what to infer.

True, but considering the popularity and age of The Matrix, I'm guessing most people assume the hot tech company is referencing techno futurist movie from the 90s and not a charlatan from the 70s.
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