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>If I was able to build such a software that has potential on stealing Autodesk software. And Autodesk showed at my door with $50,000,000 in cash. I would sell

by jasode 6y ago

>If I was able to build such a software that has potential on stealing Autodesk software. And Autodesk showed at my door with $50,000,000 in cash. I would sell it so fast [...] The rational is simple. I will make up some numbers: [...] The part missing from your hypothetical scenario is that founders have egos and many would rather keep ownership of their company and don't want to work for someone else. (I made previous comment about this.[0]) Yahoo made offers to buy Google and Facebook but we obviously know that Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg did not become employees of Yahoo reporting to their boss Jerry Yang. They said "no sale". In Facebook's case of being the buyer, Kevin Systrom of Instragram said "yes" to Zuckerberg but Ev Williams of Twitter said "no".[1] If you're a founder of a successful startup and Autodesk/Facebook/Google come calling with an offer of (m|b)illions to buy your company, you can listen to them but you don't have to sell. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21419098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21419098 [1] https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/04/the-three-reasons-twitter-didnt-sell-to-facebook/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/04/the-three-reasons-twitter-...

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
I wouldn’t trust Autodesk though, they’ll probably just blow up your house and disappear your family if they feel threatened.
thinkloop 6y ago
> Yahoo made offers to buy Google I think you have that backwards, Google kept asking Yahoo to buy them [1] [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-132805083.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-...
- jasode 6y ago
  >I think you have that backwards, Google kept asking Yahoo to buy them The early 1998 $1 million offer was prompted by Larry Page and Yahoo rejected him. However, the 2002 offer of $3 billion was from Yahoo and Google rejected them. In 2002, Google was already starting to see profits so they were under no pressure to sell.
  - thinkloop 6y ago
    You're right: "In 2002, Yahoo's CEO at the time, Terry Semel, engaged in negotiations to acquire Google, which lasted several months. The outcome of the negotiation was Semel balking at Google's price tag of $5 billion."
polote 6y ago
It is always the same thing "If I were X" people only imagine that X wouldn't bring them anything, so having $50M is better than having nothing. Well as you said, no, is it better to have a company valued $50M growing 30% per year, or having $50M in your bank account ? Most entrepreneur will prefer the latter

by jasode 6y ago

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago

I wouldn’t trust Autodesk though, they’ll probably just blow up your house and disappear your family if they feel threatened.

thinkloop 6y ago

> Yahoo made offers to buy Google I think you have that backwards, Google kept asking Yahoo to buy them [1] [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-132805083.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-...

jasode 6y ago
>I think you have that backwards, Google kept asking Yahoo to buy them The early 1998 $1 million offer was prompted by Larry Page and Yahoo rejected him. However, the 2002 offer of $3 billion was from Yahoo and Google rejected them. In 2002, Google was already starting to see profits so they were under no pressure to sell.
- thinkloop 6y ago
  You're right: "In 2002, Yahoo's CEO at the time, Terry Semel, engaged in negotiations to acquire Google, which lasted several months. The outcome of the negotiation was Semel balking at Google's price tag of $5 billion."

polote 6y ago

It is always the same thing "If I were X" people only imagine that X wouldn't bring them anything, so having $50M is better than having nothing. Well as you said, no, is it better to have a company valued $50M growing 30% per year, or having $50M in your bank account ? Most entrepreneur will prefer the latter