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I'm surprised that the price isn't higher. It was my understanding that Weebly is highly profitable, which would normally give them lots of leverage in any nego

by zapita 9y ago

I'm surprised that the price isn't higher. It was my understanding that Weebly is highly profitable, which would normally give them lots of leverage in any negotiation. What am I missing? Maybe there is a ridiculous amount of Square stock for the team on top of the price paid to shareholders? Or growth is flattening dramatically and they panicked?

luckydata 9y ago
Those businesses are not very valuable. Their clientele is highly unstable (small businesses go out of business a lot), not very profitable and the space for revenue expansion is very small. On top of that there's a healthy amount of competition.
pbreit 9y ago
It does seem low. I think all the stock compensation was included in the published amount. According to reports, Weebly raised a Series C in 2014 at $455m/$490m valuation. Competitor Wix which is public is currently valued at $3.9b on I would guess about 5x the revenues.
- pbreit 9y ago
  Note: Roelof Botha on BOD of both companies.
sssasdasd3 9y ago
Asdasdasd
eldavido 9y ago
Zero network effects, escalating acquisition costs as the space gets more saturated, and few other potential acquirers. Having said that, this isn't a bad outcome by any stretch so congrats to them.
- zapita 9y ago
  Yes it is absolutely a fantastic outcome for the team, probably life-changing for many of them. If their situation was what you described, they played their hand very well.
  - eldavido 9y ago
    This isn't my opinion, it's more like "business physics". Any company without network effects is going to have escalating acquisition costs as they have to convince more highly indifferent users/customers to come onboard. This is why Weebly is a 360 million dollar company and Uber is a 30 billion dollar company (100x difference). Uber is building a monopoly that almost completely precludes competition. There simply isn't anything close to this in Weebly's business model. Blue Apron is a good example of what happens when CAC gets out of line. Check it out.
    - zapita 9y ago
      > This isn't my opinion, it's more like "business physics". Of course it's your opinion. You don't actually know their acquisition costs, or the strength of their network effects. You're out here making educated guesses, like the rest of us. Just because you're really confident about your guess doesn't make it automatically correct.
  - scurvy 9y ago
    Life-changing for only a handful of people, including the founders. Weebly only had 5-6 employees before their series A fundraising. Considering how option grant size goes down from round to round, it's doubtful that anyone post series A is getting Lambo-life-changing money. Still, it will be welcome liquidity for an otherwise theoretical stock option (and probably new RSU grants for many). I think the biggest life-changing event for most will be working at mid-Market vs their current office in Soma.

by zapita 9y ago

luckydata 9y ago

Those businesses are not very valuable. Their clientele is highly unstable (small businesses go out of business a lot), not very profitable and the space for revenue expansion is very small. On top of that there's a healthy amount of competition.

pbreit 9y ago

It does seem low. I think all the stock compensation was included in the published amount. According to reports, Weebly raised a Series C in 2014 at $455m/$490m valuation. Competitor Wix which is public is currently valued at $3.9b on I would guess about 5x the revenues.

pbreit 9y ago
Note: Roelof Botha on BOD of both companies.

sssasdasd3 9y ago

Asdasdasd

eldavido 9y ago

Zero network effects, escalating acquisition costs as the space gets more saturated, and few other potential acquirers. Having said that, this isn't a bad outcome by any stretch so congrats to them.

zapita 9y ago
Yes it is absolutely a fantastic outcome for the team, probably life-changing for many of them. If their situation was what you described, they played their hand very well.
- eldavido 9y ago
  This isn't my opinion, it's more like "business physics". Any company without network effects is going to have escalating acquisition costs as they have to convince more highly indifferent users/customers to come onboard. This is why Weebly is a 360 million dollar company and Uber is a 30 billion dollar company (100x difference). Uber is building a monopoly that almost completely precludes competition. There simply isn't anything close to this in Weebly's business model. Blue Apron is a good example of what happens when CAC gets out of line. Check it out.
  - zapita 9y ago
    > This isn't my opinion, it's more like "business physics". Of course it's your opinion. You don't actually know their acquisition costs, or the strength of their network effects. You're out here making educated guesses, like the rest of us. Just because you're really confident about your guess doesn't make it automatically correct.
- scurvy 9y ago
  Life-changing for only a handful of people, including the founders. Weebly only had 5-6 employees before their series A fundraising. Considering how option grant size goes down from round to round, it's doubtful that anyone post series A is getting Lambo-life-changing money. Still, it will be welcome liquidity for an otherwise theoretical stock option (and probably new RSU grants for many). I think the biggest life-changing event for most will be working at mid-Market vs their current office in Soma.