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Your fate is sealed the moment you go public. No public company can withstand the shareholder pressure forever

by umvi 7y ago

bemmu 7y ago
What would happen if they threw their hands up, declared that OK this is as much revenue we can squeeze out, and instead just coasted at current levels?
- allovernow 7y ago
  The board would fire all of the execs and hire a bunch yes men who promise continued growth.
  - caleb-allen 7y ago
    Do the founders still retain majority votes?
sytelus 7y ago
It's not the fate. Google has more cash in the bank than any other company in the world (in tune of $130 billion). They could choose to use this cash to invest in creating new business, new products and the market would reward them handsomely. This is how Amazon's stock had meteoric rise despite of poor margins and a series of failures. Amazon has spent out a massive amount of cash in trying to build one business after another, everything from Fire phone to Alexa to kids tablet to Prime Video to grocery delivery to the pharmacy and so on. Many of these has failed and Bezos have pushed on with eyes on long horizon. People don't realize but Amazon is not its web site or AWS but a product factory, a sort of meta product. This keeps the market hopeful that they would have another big hit and the stock keeps going up on speculation. The majority of CFOs/CEOs of big tech haven't understood this and they keep twisting arm of existing cows to squeeze out more milk while a mountain of cash waiting to be utilized. It's also not that there is a dearth of new opportunity. Every sector from health to education to transportation to energy to finance is waiting for the next revolution. Its only gutsy leaders like Elon Musk who come in out of nowhere and start out things like Boring company or Tesla or Solar City. The market rewards them for taking a risk and being visionary (Tesla market cap is now more than GM and Ford combined despite selling 98% less vehicles!). So, the market is working fine and in fact doing exactly what it should do. So don't blame fate. Don't blame market. Don't blame wall street. Don't confuse a lack of visionary CEOs or their willingness to take a risk with fate or dysfunctional market.

Your fate is sealed the moment you go public. No public company can withstand the shareholder pressure forever

by umvi 7y ago

Your fate is sealed the moment you go public. No public company can withstand the shareholder pressure forever

What would happen if they threw their hands up, declared that OK this is as much revenue we can squeeze out, and instead just coasted at current levels?

allovernow 7y ago
The board would fire all of the execs and hire a bunch yes men who promise continued growth.
- caleb-allen 7y ago
  Do the founders still retain majority votes?

sytelus 7y ago

It's not the fate. Google has more cash in the bank than any other company in the world (in tune of $130 billion). They could choose to use this cash to invest in creating new business, new products and the market would reward them handsomely. This is how Amazon's stock had meteoric rise despite of poor margins and a series of failures. Amazon has spent out a massive amount of cash in trying to build one business after another, everything from Fire phone to Alexa to kids tablet to Prime Video to grocery delivery to the pharmacy and so on. Many of these has failed and Bezos have pushed on with eyes on long horizon. People don't realize but Amazon is not its web site or AWS but a product factory, a sort of meta product. This keeps the market hopeful that they would have another big hit and the stock keeps going up on speculation. The majority of CFOs/CEOs of big tech haven't understood this and they keep twisting arm of existing cows to squeeze out more milk while a mountain of cash waiting to be utilized. It's also not that there is a dearth of new opportunity. Every sector from health to education to transportation to energy to finance is waiting for the next revolution. Its only gutsy leaders like Elon Musk who come in out of nowhere and start out things like Boring company or Tesla or Solar City. The market rewards them for taking a risk and being visionary (Tesla market cap is now more than GM and Ford combined despite selling 98% less vehicles!). So, the market is working fine and in fact doing exactly what it should do. So don't blame fate. Don't blame market. Don't blame wall street. Don't confuse a lack of visionary CEOs or their willingness to take a risk with fate or dysfunctional market.