4 ms·
Yes they were foolish to turn down the offer, but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might thin
by henning 19y ago
Yes they were foolish to turn down the offer, but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think, IMO.
(I can't believe they turned down the offer!)
- fleaflicker 19y agoThere are a lot of factors to weight when considering a sale. It's not as simple as weighing the (rumored and potentially inaccurate) purchase price. You can't say it was foolish unless you know everything--payment schedule (cash/stock/milestones), ambition of founders, post-acquisition employment requirements, future direction of the product.
- jamiequint 19y agonot to mention that a sub $20M sale on $4.2M investment would not be seen favorably at all by the investors sitting on the board.
- mattmaroon 19y agoRight. I don't know what their premoney was, but it had to be in the 8-10 range I'd guess. VCs don't approve 2x returns.
- edw519 19y ago"but competing against a culture as meeting-centric and slow as Microsoft's is less challenging than you might think" I think I'll get another opinion about that from someone at Netscape, Lotus, or Corel. Oh, never mind.
- henning 19y agoMicrosoft of the 80s and mid-90s is not the Microsoft of today, is it? You don't think there's any particular systemtic reason why Apple shipped like 5 releases of OS X in the time it took to create Vista?
- edw519 19y agoI wasn't referring to Microsoft's ability to compete with quality. No sane person would argue that. But I can think of 34 billion reasons why I wouldn't want to be in their crosshairs. And those are 2008 Benjamins.
- mixmax 19y agoHenning, I think you have hit the point that will eventually bring Microsoft to its knees unless it changes directions. Unrelated: I've been womdering for a while where you are from with that name? Can you tell us?