4 ms·

What does Palantir do?

wnoise 16y ago
> But recently, Palantir has found itself in headlines for putting together a proposal, along with HBGary and Berico Technologies, to launch cyber-attacks and other “dirty tricks” against Wikileaks and its supporters, on behalf of Bank of America, and against website ThinkProgress on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- bane 16y ago
  Don't forget settling a lawsuit with one of their principal competitors (i2), conducted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO, yes the same law that Mob bosses are charged under, the judge in the case threw out all of their defenses not to be sued under RICO since what they did was so brazen) which would have resulted in triple damages -- they virtually had to settle or go out of business. http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/16/palantirs-third-black-eye-i2-lawsuit-settled/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/16/palantirs-third-black-eye-... The initial complaint reads like one of their sales/marketing demos. Very sketchy company IMHO.
rdouble 16y ago
They sell data mining tools to the US government.
- gvnonor 16y ago
  I once heard in an Alex Karp interview that they sold their products to other governments too(China and India IIRC). I found it quite odd, it would make sense to provide exclusive access to a particular government like the US or some other large country. This isn't a consumer product, it deals with a lot of sensitive data and i'm assuming a lot of governments would be wary of using the same product/company (especially one with 20 somethings at the helm). edit: I'm not against 20-30 year olds running a company, but i'm assuming government officials would be.
  - flipbrad 16y ago
    You probably meant "wary"... or maybe not.
    - gvnonor 16y ago
      oops...edited
  - slater 16y ago
    Heh, the world isn't governed by presidential translators, but by 20-somethings pushing one set of data to one government, then slily changing it and pushing it to the other government. Also, Palantir probably has a cadre of fat old white conservative reps to deal with gov't reps.

> But recently, Palantir has found itself in headlines for putting together a proposal, along with HBGary and Berico Technologies, to launch cyber-attacks and other “dirty tricks” against Wikileaks and its supporters, on behalf of Bank of America, and against website ThinkProgress on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

bane 16y ago
Don't forget settling a lawsuit with one of their principal competitors (i2), conducted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO, yes the same law that Mob bosses are charged under, the judge in the case threw out all of their defenses not to be sued under RICO since what they did was so brazen) which would have resulted in triple damages -- they virtually had to settle or go out of business. http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/16/palantirs-third-black-eye-i2-lawsuit-settled/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/16/palantirs-third-black-eye-... The initial complaint reads like one of their sales/marketing demos. Very sketchy company IMHO.

rdouble 16y ago

They sell data mining tools to the US government.

gvnonor 16y ago
I once heard in an Alex Karp interview that they sold their products to other governments too(China and India IIRC). I found it quite odd, it would make sense to provide exclusive access to a particular government like the US or some other large country. This isn't a consumer product, it deals with a lot of sensitive data and i'm assuming a lot of governments would be wary of using the same product/company (especially one with 20 somethings at the helm). edit: I'm not against 20-30 year olds running a company, but i'm assuming government officials would be.
- flipbrad 16y ago
  You probably meant "wary"... or maybe not.
  - gvnonor 16y ago
    oops...edited
- slater 16y ago
  Heh, the world isn't governed by presidential translators, but by 20-somethings pushing one set of data to one government, then slily changing it and pushing it to the other government. Also, Palantir probably has a cadre of fat old white conservative reps to deal with gov't reps.