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I think one takeaway from Theranos should be this: People are willing to rent their names for large sums of money to be listed as board members. What exactly d

I think one takeaway from Theranos should be this: People are willing to rent their names for large sums of money to be listed as board members. What exactly did the Theranos board accomplish? How much did they make? Much as "Long Term Capital Management" used the fame/prestige of its members as a marketing tool, Theranos did the same with her board of directors.

cedilla 4y ago
The difference is that no one is willing to pour billions into Atari. Atari, SA really struggled to find investors. Also, the problem with Theranos was exactly that the board members were not from industry, but retired politicians or diplomats.
- kennend3 4y ago
  I think you entirly missed the point. As others in this thread have posted, sometimes board members are just "window dressing". Sometimes big names put there to attract investors/show stability of the company, etc. Perhaps Nolan contributes, perhaps not - i dont follow the issue that closely to speak on that. My point is just to do your due diligence and not depend on "so and so is on the board".
dec0dedab0de 4y ago
Nolan Bushnell was the founder of Atari. You're right that board members don't necessarily do anything, but the argument here is whether or not the current Atari has a connection to the old Atari. I would say Bushnell's presence on the board means that it does, even if he doesn't do anything.
- mrandish 4y ago
  IIRC, Nolan wasn't involved with the many various holders of the Atari brand name rights for decades between now and when he originally left. I don't know if that matters to others but for me it does somewhat weaken the meaning of him being on the board again now vs if he'd been a presence on the board continuously from back in the day to now (which would have been lovely but unfortunately not the way the world worked this time). That said, hopefully the current incarnation of Atari can create products which further the retro renaissance. The Atari 50 retrospective was a nice start in that direction (though it was made by a retro-focused specialty publisher who licensed the rights from Atari, both Nolan and the current CEO did appear in an interview in the package).

cedilla 4y ago

The difference is that no one is willing to pour billions into Atari. Atari, SA really struggled to find investors. Also, the problem with Theranos was exactly that the board members were not from industry, but retired politicians or diplomats.

kennend3 4y ago
I think you entirly missed the point. As others in this thread have posted, sometimes board members are just "window dressing". Sometimes big names put there to attract investors/show stability of the company, etc. Perhaps Nolan contributes, perhaps not - i dont follow the issue that closely to speak on that. My point is just to do your due diligence and not depend on "so and so is on the board".

dec0dedab0de 4y ago

Nolan Bushnell was the founder of Atari. You're right that board members don't necessarily do anything, but the argument here is whether or not the current Atari has a connection to the old Atari. I would say Bushnell's presence on the board means that it does, even if he doesn't do anything.

mrandish 4y ago
IIRC, Nolan wasn't involved with the many various holders of the Atari brand name rights for decades between now and when he originally left. I don't know if that matters to others but for me it does somewhat weaken the meaning of him being on the board again now vs if he'd been a presence on the board continuously from back in the day to now (which would have been lovely but unfortunately not the way the world worked this time). That said, hopefully the current incarnation of Atari can create products which further the retro renaissance. The Atari 50 retrospective was a nice start in that direction (though it was made by a retro-focused specialty publisher who licensed the rights from Atari, both Nolan and the current CEO did appear in an interview in the package).