5 ms·

They have exactly 1.63B reasons to sell. You don't get to judge them with zero insight into their business and visions for their lives.

ashtonkem 5y ago
Also, I would openly laugh at anyone who claims that they’d personally turn down 1.63B to keep their business pure. That is an overwhelming amount of money, in the “none of your descendants needs to work” range. I’d sell out for much, much less money.
- chevill 5y ago
  On the contrary if I ever built a business that was worth 100 million or more I'd take far less than my share of it if it meant that I could get a clean exit and not have to stay on as an executive for a few years. Perhaps my mentality is part of the reason why I will never build such a thing.
- marc__1 5y ago
  Apparently there were many other billion dollar acquisition bids turned down Mark Zuckerberg Turned Down Yahoo's $1 Billion https://www.inc.com/allison-fass/peter-thiel-mark-zuckerberg-luck-day-facebook-turned-down-billion-dollars.html https://www.inc.com/allison-fass/peter-thiel-mark-zuckerberg... Discord reportedly rejects Microsoft's $12 billion acquisition offer https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/microsoft-12-billion-discord-acquisition-fizzles-out/story https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/microsoft-12-bill... Amazon and Alibaba have approached 5-year-old startup Wish, but the CEO seems to want more than $10 billion https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-rumored-to-reject-acquisition-offers-from-amazon-and-alibaba-2015-11?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-rumored-to-reject-acqui...
  - CyberDildonics 5y ago
    Mark Zuckerberg also turned down a $15 Billion dollar offer from Microsoft.
  - alksjdalkj 5y ago
    But there's a difference between turning down a bid because you want to maintain control over your vision and because you think your company is just worth more than the offer. The point is just that if you get what you think is a fair offer, and it's a very large offer, it would be hard for most people to say no.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    It's obviously not impossible for someone to turn down a billion dollar offer because they think it's not enough, or to maintain control over their company. But I think people drastically underestimate how easy it would be to not sell out and walk away. The kind of people who will look at that offer and say "no thanks" are far and few between. There is a non-trivial chance that most of us have not met anyone like that.
  - alex_young 5y ago
    Also of note: Groupon turned down $6B from Google. They now have a market cap of $1.6B 11 years later. https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-daily/win%C2%AD-win-negotiations-for-groupon-googles-failed-bid/ https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-daily/win%C2%AD-wi...
richardwhiuk 5y ago
Not all of that money will go to the founders.
- andrewingram 5y ago
  Most of it won't, there's only one founder and from what I understand his share is less than what you'd expect. I imagine all the early employees did pretty well from this though.

ashtonkem 5y ago

Also, I would openly laugh at anyone who claims that they’d personally turn down 1.63B to keep their business pure. That is an overwhelming amount of money, in the “none of your descendants needs to work” range. I’d sell out for much, much less money.

chevill 5y ago
On the contrary if I ever built a business that was worth 100 million or more I'd take far less than my share of it if it meant that I could get a clean exit and not have to stay on as an executive for a few years. Perhaps my mentality is part of the reason why I will never build such a thing.
marc__1 5y ago
Apparently there were many other billion dollar acquisition bids turned down Mark Zuckerberg Turned Down Yahoo's $1 Billion https://www.inc.com/allison-fass/peter-thiel-mark-zuckerberg-luck-day-facebook-turned-down-billion-dollars.html https://www.inc.com/allison-fass/peter-thiel-mark-zuckerberg... Discord reportedly rejects Microsoft's $12 billion acquisition offer https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/microsoft-12-billion-discord-acquisition-fizzles-out/story https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/business/microsoft-12-bill... Amazon and Alibaba have approached 5-year-old startup Wish, but the CEO seems to want more than $10 billion https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-rumored-to-reject-acquisition-offers-from-amazon-and-alibaba-2015-11?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/wish-rumored-to-reject-acqui...
- CyberDildonics 5y ago
  Mark Zuckerberg also turned down a $15 Billion dollar offer from Microsoft.
- alksjdalkj 5y ago
  But there's a difference between turning down a bid because you want to maintain control over your vision and because you think your company is just worth more than the offer. The point is just that if you get what you think is a fair offer, and it's a very large offer, it would be hard for most people to say no.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  It's obviously not impossible for someone to turn down a billion dollar offer because they think it's not enough, or to maintain control over their company. But I think people drastically underestimate how easy it would be to not sell out and walk away. The kind of people who will look at that offer and say "no thanks" are far and few between. There is a non-trivial chance that most of us have not met anyone like that.
- alex_young 5y ago
  Also of note: Groupon turned down $6B from Google. They now have a market cap of $1.6B 11 years later. https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-daily/win%C2%AD-win-negotiations-for-groupon-googles-failed-bid/ https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-daily/win%C2%AD-wi...

richardwhiuk 5y ago

Not all of that money will go to the founders.

andrewingram 5y ago
Most of it won't, there's only one founder and from what I understand his share is less than what you'd expect. I imagine all the early employees did pretty well from this though.