4 ms·
To those accusing Siemens Of not properly appreciating hackaday (which I loved in the past as well) consider this from Siemens point of view: They are spending
by billyhoffman 5y ago
To those accusing Siemens Of not properly appreciating hackaday (which I loved in the past as well) consider this from Siemens point of view:
They are spending $700M on a digital parts intelligence company. This is 10x revenue, so there is serious growth or other significant opportunities that justify that multiple.
A hacker/maker news site and forums that the company also happens to own that generates, maybe, a few million? Which certainly doesn’t have a growth rate justifying a 10x valuation? These are minor aspects of the deal and frankly just not a high priority to the M&A team trying to plan and execute the integration of a $700M acquisition.
Should the corporate communications team or PR agency advising them have done a better job on this interview? Sure. But Seimens is focusing on exactly what they should be focusing on and that simply is not a niche hacker/maker community website.
- willis936 5y agoAnother example of shareholder value theory destroying a cherished community in pursuit of a higher number.
- billyhoffman 5y agoI guess? It’s not like hackaday woke up one morning, hung over, and realized it had gotten drunk-acquired by supplyframe the night before. if Hackaday wanted to preserve a cherished community, selling itself to a venture-backed for-profit company was a really stupid thing to do.
- sokoloff 5y agoI can almost imagine an email exchange behind the scenes that included >>> who can take the Hackaday question? >> what’s Hackaday? > it’s in “all other unrelated revenue”; I’d just ignore it…
- jml7c5 5y agoI think the bigger fear is >it's in "all other unrelated expenses"; I'd just ignore it...
- djmips 5y agoI think everyone understands that, and the point is that the fact that they didn't do a better job in the interview is very telling. Yeah, sure we understand that the main part of the deal was the parts business, however when this kind of thing has happened in the past the new owners at least had a clue and talked about it.