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I don't know if it's an overall trend of stagnant growth or slowing economy, but bigger companies/unicorns are definitely feeling the pressure from overvaluatio
by yladiz 10y ago
I don't know if it's an overall trend of stagnant growth or slowing economy, but bigger companies/unicorns are definitely feeling the pressure from overvaluation and being forced to downsize employees and office space, as evident by leasing out office space they bought up and doing down rounds. It's kind of this version of the dot-com bubble popping, except this time it's more of like a slower deflation than a pop.
- blawson 10y agoDo you happen to have other examples of larger companies doing this? I haven't heard of anything concrete other than this, mostly just anecdotes from people here on HN saying they feel the job market is cooling.
- ykl 10y agoI think the canonical example is Zynga. [0] https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-more-than-zynga-the-company-47a704d48249#.3zsmoj85z https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-... [1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/zynga-to-sell-its-san-francisco-headquarters-1456336000 http://www.wsj.com/articles/zynga-to-sell-its-san-francisco-...
- huac 10y agoi don't think 'halting problem' is a real news source
- MorePowerToYou 10y agoEvernote: http://www.businessinsider.com/evernote-layoffs-2015-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/evernote-layoffs-2015-9
- jimmywanger 10y agoYeah, one of my friend's companies is exploring leasing space in their Redwood City complex.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI don't think we're far enough in yet that we can call it only "slower deflation" versus a pop. Things happen slowly, and then all of a sudden.
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- KKKKkkkk1 10y agoAm I the only one who hears echoes of AOL-Time Warner in the Jet.com acquisition by Walmart?
- praccu 10y agoI think there may be a distinction: Walmart could fill a hole in the ground with $3 billion dollars and burn it, and not care. [A bit of an exaggeration, as that's half their annual profit] AOL acquired Time Warner for $182 billion.
- trimbo 10y agoWhat similarity do you see? At the time of AOL-TW, both were profitable and it was the largest US merger ever.
- smileysteve 10y ago[Aol drastically miscategorgized R&D as an asset, paid itself, and recognized loans as revenue - to the extent of fraud](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64365-2005Jan10.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64365-2005Jan...) As an Atlantan who has seen Ted have to sell most of his Turner based business interests (Braves, Hawks, TBS, Thrashers) I can tell you it wasn't a very profitable merger.
- schlumpf 10y agoIf it were Jet.com buying Wal Mart, then no you would not be alone. That it's a bricks-and-mortar behemoth buying a startup facing an uphill battle against a much larger online incumbent seems altogether more rational this time around.
- ucaetano 10y agoThere is an interesting way to look at the AOL-TW merger: AOL knew it was extremely over-valued, and that valuation wouldn't hold, so it used the very high prices to buy something which actually had value. From that perspective, it was a highly successful move. But it might all be hindsight, just like the Honda Motorcycle case.