6 ms·
> In 2021, Stripe reportedly notched gross revenues of $12 billion and was EBITDA profitable, according to Forbes. So that basically means they aren't profitab
by firecall 4y ago
> In 2021, Stripe reportedly notched gross revenues of $12 billion and was EBITDA profitable, according to Forbes.
So that basically means they aren't profitable, right?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- halotrope 4y agoCharlie Munger calls EBITDA earnings “bullshit earnings”
- frankfrankfrank 4y agoBecause they are, as is clear to anyone not on the tech sauce. It’s the “I’m a loyal and faithful partner; minus the cheating, lying, deceiving, and gaslighting” of financials.
- shawabawa3 4y agoI always took EBIDTA to be "theoretical best case" earnings, i.e. our business model could theoretically be profitable if we could just magically pay off all our debt and upgrade all of our equipment for free Sure that doesn't mean much, but it's better than losing more money on every additional dollar of revenue which seems to be some company's model
- nowherebeen 4y agoThey should have IPO'd when they had the chance.
- fastball 4y agoHow could a company like Stripe not be profitable with $12B revenue?
- papito 4y agoThen why mention EBIDTA? It exists to basically say "we are bullshit artists and we are using creative accounting to LOOK profitable".
- hef19898 4y agoIf you apply "creative" accounting to your EBITDA, you in the same group of companies like Enron.
- coffeebeqn 4y agoNever forget that WeWork used “community adjusted” ebitda. So it can still get worse
- hef19898 4y agoThat, and "Cash flow including funding" are my two favorite bullshit financial metrics!
- liveoneggs 4y agoI am also confused how Stripe, who collects fees on billions and billions of transactions, could somehow not be a very very wealthy company. However Block, Inc (formerly square) is also not profitable! https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SQ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SQ with EPS of -0.17
- dumbmachine 4y agoConsidering they are in the same segment, Adyen seems to be doing fine. EPS of 17.64 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADYEN.AS/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ADYEN.AS/ Could be a result of smaller product suite and headcount of Adyen.
- jtc331 4y agoThe vast majority of those fees flow through to payment networks and issuing banks.
- atdrummond 4y agoThere’s using EBITDA because you want to (Malone using it to market Liberty) and then there’s using EBITDA because you have to (many tech industry darlings).
- zaphirplane 4y agowe’d all love to tell a bank I’m good for 10 million considering my EBITDA
- nl 4y agoWho cares if they are or aren't EBITDA profitable. It's pretty clear they could cut growth expenses dramatically at at point if they chose.
- nl 4y agoTo the downvoters: what exactly do you think profitability shows and why is it important? The general answer is "the company is default alive". But actually looking at cashflow and which expenses can be cut gives a much better idea of that.
- coffeebeqn 4y agoSince the era of free money has probably come to an end , the ability to be profitable is maybe necessary now. If the only funding you can get is a 7% loan then suddenly your math will look very different since you have to pay that interest
- nl 4y agoAs my comment says, cashflow is an even better source of money.
- 0xy 4y agoYou're right, because competitors like Adyen can make a 7% net profit while being very competitive with Stripe fees.