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They merged with a private equity company. It got turned into a financial instrument instead of a business.

• nathanaldensr 3y ago
  Yep. There's always the assumption that just because a business sells a product or service that it is in business to sell a product or service. This is not always true.
• pessimizer 3y ago
  Like real estate.
• wnevets 3y ago
  Isn't that what happened to Bed Bath & Beyond? Can someone explain to me why this happening isn't a bad thing?
  • katbyte 3y ago
    > explain to me why this happening isn't a bad thing because there is now a good change everyone with one of these devices is likely no longer going to get support, warranty, or updates. apps will become outdated and fall off the app store parts to repair will no longer be available etc devices/a brand people enjoyed using is now gone because PE did what PE does and destroyed the brand for a quick buck
    • wnevets 3y ago
      that sounds like a bad thing tho
      • katbyte 3y ago
        oh that is my bad, i read your comment on why this IS a bad thing not isn't :( sorry
• dpflan 3y ago
  How does PE survive? If these companies become instruments and now forced into bankruptcy, the PE must write off the bankruptcy (some economic advantage must exist for this path). But then the PE has to move on and find another company to possess, right? I wish we had Instant’s financials, they did seem to be selling well, so their value was based on expected sales/profit in perpetuity…bankruptcy stops that because bankruptcy has a cap, right? I need help understanding how PE continues to exist, beyond the assumption that they got money out of the deal and will move on to another one…
  • dpflan 3y ago
    A basic HN Search yields some interesting top articles: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22private%20equity%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... The Atlantic: When Private Equity Firms Bankrupt Their Own Companies https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/private-equity-firms-bankruptcies-plunder-book/673896/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/private-eq... > Interesting, "pension laundering" is a tactic that seems quite abusive.
    • robd003 3y ago
      Pensions should be outlawed. If employees want retirement savings they should be given money for 401k plans, not outdated and inefficient defined benefit plans.
      • Tuna-Fish 3y ago
        More importantly, company-ran pension plans should be outlawed because they are a morass of perverse incentives and opportunities for quasi-legal theft. To put it simply, it is often the incentive of the people who make decisions about the pensions to mismanage them.
        • jrockway 3y ago
          I suppose pensions take advantage of the time value of money; funding someone's 401k means you can't use the money to expand your business, but if you just pay them what they would have made 30 years later, you already expanded and that money is easy to come by because you're making so much now. But, it's difficult to enforce. The expansion plans could be "yacht for the CEO plans", and when retirement time comes, "oh sorry we don't have any money :(" is the likely excuse. So it doesn't seem to work anymore in practice; being optimistic about doing better than average long-term is not a viable financial strategy.