5 ms·

Step 1: ban the thing the product you just bought makes all of its money from Step 2: ???? Step 3: sell it for a loss!

by tw04 8y ago

hkmurakami 8y ago
Hey, tax write off.
- 1ris 8y ago
  Might as well literally burn cash for that - still not a good idea.
  - jethro_tell 8y ago
    can you write off loss due to cash fire?
    - weinzierl 8y ago
      The KLF would approve[1]. EDIT: I looked it up because I wasn't sure about the details. Man, what a rabbit hole. There is even a Wikipedia page about money burning and its legality in various jurisdictions[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Qu... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning
    - wahern 8y ago
      It's an asset like anything else, so AFAIK same profit and loss rules apply. For a business that means yes, you can. For individuals that means no, you can't, unless there's a special exception such as losing your cash in a federally declared disaster. If you're both and the assets are mixed (e.g. operating budget and retirement account are both kept under your mattress), I imagine the IRS would presume the cash was personal and it'd be difficult to argue otherwise. I'm not an accountant but have studied basic tax law. I only briefly Googled to make sure I'm not patently misrepresenting things, though.
    - NullPrefix 8y ago
      What about the carbon offset?
pram 8y ago
I'm pretty sure Tumblr wasn't worth anything. Yahoo wrote off most of its value after they acquired it.
- jillesvangurp 8y ago
  Tumblr was a rapidly growing social platform that had Facebook shitting their pants when Yahoo bought it from right under their noses. They followed up with some acquisitions of their own, some of which have been quite successful for them. Of course Yahoo ran this into the ground and never really had a coherent strategy to do anything productive with this. Yahoo destroyed quite a few perfectly good startups with active user bases that each were on clear paths to IPOs. I'm pretty sure the Tumblr acquisition by Verizon was just part of some bigger deal that involved bailing out some of the investors with an 'exit'. Yahoo was imploding and that was inconvenient to a lot of investors. Companies like Verizon have plenty of money and lots of ties to the same investors. Many of which probably benefited from this kind of controlled demolition. It was never about salvaging something of value; just about bailing out investors. Verizon can absorb the loss. I doubt this will have big consequences for any of their leadership. The next phase in Tumblrs life will be hedgefunds stripping what remains of value. It's a dead company at this point. Anyone with a clue probably bailed before Yahoo sold out to Verizon and most of the rest probably left right after.
  - henrikschroder 8y ago
    > I'm pretty sure the Tumblr acquisition by Verizon was just part of some bigger deal that involved bailing out some of the investors with an 'exit'. The "bigger deal" was the sale of all of Yahoo's business to Verizon, which was an all-or-nothing-deal.
    - jillesvangurp 8y ago
      To be fair, Tumblr was one of the more well known and probably more valuable bits that they got as part of that package. I believe e.g. Flickr was sold separately. As I understand it, Verizon has pretty much devalued the entire package already a few months ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/verizon-signals-its-yahoo-aol-divisions-are-almost-worthless-n946846 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/verizon-signals-its-y...
tinus_hn 8y ago
The worth of a large collection of shady pirated porn blogs is marginal. You can only host very cheap ads next to it and it devalues the rest of the site.
- danaris 8y ago
  A great deal of the porn is, as I understand it, not pirated, but original content. It is, after all, something a significant percentage of the population naturally possesses the resources to create.
- gehwartzen 8y ago
  Out of curiosity is there any real evidence that there is a negative consequence for an advertiser marketing its brand on a porn/adult website? I'm a fairly well adjusted human being that also consumes pornography at times and i'm not sure I would personally be bothered with seeing an add for a luxury car brand or clothing designer (not-withstanding my general dislike of seeing any ad). I don't think it would influence my viewpoint of that brand one way or another (vs seeing it on any other site); but maybe subconsciously it would? Is there any actual research?

Step 1: ban the thing the product you just bought makes all of its money from Step 2: ???? Step 3: sell it for a loss!

by tw04 8y ago

Step 1: ban the thing the product you just bought makes all of its money from Step 2: ???? Step 3: sell it for a loss!

hkmurakami 8y ago

Hey, tax write off.

1ris 8y ago
Might as well literally burn cash for that - still not a good idea.
- jethro_tell 8y ago
  can you write off loss due to cash fire?
  - weinzierl 8y ago
    The KLF would approve[1]. EDIT: I looked it up because I wasn't sure about the details. Man, what a rabbit hole. There is even a Wikipedia page about money burning and its legality in various jurisdictions[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Qu... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_burning
  - wahern 8y ago
    It's an asset like anything else, so AFAIK same profit and loss rules apply. For a business that means yes, you can. For individuals that means no, you can't, unless there's a special exception such as losing your cash in a federally declared disaster. If you're both and the assets are mixed (e.g. operating budget and retirement account are both kept under your mattress), I imagine the IRS would presume the cash was personal and it'd be difficult to argue otherwise. I'm not an accountant but have studied basic tax law. I only briefly Googled to make sure I'm not patently misrepresenting things, though.
  - NullPrefix 8y ago
    What about the carbon offset?

pram 8y ago

I'm pretty sure Tumblr wasn't worth anything. Yahoo wrote off most of its value after they acquired it.

jillesvangurp 8y ago
Tumblr was a rapidly growing social platform that had Facebook shitting their pants when Yahoo bought it from right under their noses. They followed up with some acquisitions of their own, some of which have been quite successful for them. Of course Yahoo ran this into the ground and never really had a coherent strategy to do anything productive with this. Yahoo destroyed quite a few perfectly good startups with active user bases that each were on clear paths to IPOs. I'm pretty sure the Tumblr acquisition by Verizon was just part of some bigger deal that involved bailing out some of the investors with an 'exit'. Yahoo was imploding and that was inconvenient to a lot of investors. Companies like Verizon have plenty of money and lots of ties to the same investors. Many of which probably benefited from this kind of controlled demolition. It was never about salvaging something of value; just about bailing out investors. Verizon can absorb the loss. I doubt this will have big consequences for any of their leadership. The next phase in Tumblrs life will be hedgefunds stripping what remains of value. It's a dead company at this point. Anyone with a clue probably bailed before Yahoo sold out to Verizon and most of the rest probably left right after.
- henrikschroder 8y ago
  > I'm pretty sure the Tumblr acquisition by Verizon was just part of some bigger deal that involved bailing out some of the investors with an 'exit'. The "bigger deal" was the sale of all of Yahoo's business to Verizon, which was an all-or-nothing-deal.
  - jillesvangurp 8y ago
    To be fair, Tumblr was one of the more well known and probably more valuable bits that they got as part of that package. I believe e.g. Flickr was sold separately. As I understand it, Verizon has pretty much devalued the entire package already a few months ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/verizon-signals-its-yahoo-aol-divisions-are-almost-worthless-n946846 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/verizon-signals-its-y...

tinus_hn 8y ago

The worth of a large collection of shady pirated porn blogs is marginal. You can only host very cheap ads next to it and it devalues the rest of the site.

danaris 8y ago
A great deal of the porn is, as I understand it, not pirated, but original content. It is, after all, something a significant percentage of the population naturally possesses the resources to create.
gehwartzen 8y ago
Out of curiosity is there any real evidence that there is a negative consequence for an advertiser marketing its brand on a porn/adult website? I'm a fairly well adjusted human being that also consumes pornography at times and i'm not sure I would personally be bothered with seeing an add for a luxury car brand or clothing designer (not-withstanding my general dislike of seeing any ad). I don't think it would influence my viewpoint of that brand one way or another (vs seeing it on any other site); but maybe subconsciously it would? Is there any actual research?