3 ms·

>They're apparently making a lot of money doing it. No. Unity is not making money, they are losing money. That's the problem. "Reduced losses" means they are

by yodon 3y ago

>They're apparently making a lot of money doing it. No. Unity is not making money, they are losing money. That's the problem. "Reduced losses" means they are losing less money than they were. That's still losing money. Unity was losing money before the licensing fiasco. It's still losing money.

corethree 3y ago
That's a better frame. The lay offs were necessary. The title frames it as if the layoffs were unnecessary. The title is technically true but the way it's worded is manipulative.
- asdajksah2123 3y ago
  There's a lot of companies laying off people even though they're making increasing profits. Unity isn't one of those (even if the C suite was being paid $0 since some are arguing that the top brass salaries are too high). It doesn't make sense to hold them up as an example of a company doing bad layoffs, especially since there's many other very obvious things to criticize them for.
OskarS 3y ago
According to the article, they have half a billion dollars in revenue (with currently $154 millon in losses), and that seems plenty to run a company like Unity. Lay-offs are rough, but looking at the numbers, they make sense in a cold-hearted capitalist sort-of way if the goal is to reach profitability. Certainly much more so than the runtime fee thing.
- giantg2 3y ago
  It really depends. A company has to at least break even for longterm success. Otherwise, there won't be enough money to pay workers.
  - dartos 3y ago
    Tell that to the entire tech sector pre-2020.
    - dragontamer 3y ago
      It's still the truth, even if the tech sector forgot the truth.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  $921M loss in 2022. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/n... $570M loss just through Sep 30. https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c99810-0173-4d43-888c-b5feba311d3f.pdf https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c9981...
  - riku_iki 3y ago
    That form says that out of 570M loss, 250M was from repurchase of stocks, but maybe they then spend it on RSUs for employees.
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      Yes, share buybacks for the purposes of returning cash to shareholders (and dividends) are not expenses on an income statement, hence they are not included in the calculation for net income.
      - riku_iki 3y ago
        In this case it is on income statement
        lotsofpulp 3y ago
        No, it is not. Page 6 has the breakdown for operating expenses, which probably means it was for compensation to employees. There is no reason to incorporate distributions to shareholders on an income statement. The whole point is to figure out how profitable the business is, and how much is left for the shareholders.
- Frogeman 3y ago
  Do you know the difference between revenue and profit?
- 300bps 3y ago
  OK imagine you have $500 million in revenue and $154 million in losses. That means you've been selling $1.00 for 70 cents. Not sustainable. If their customers don't like what they're doing, it's not surprising. Because anyone buying $1.00 for 70 cents is going to be angry when it ends. If their developers don't like what they're doing, it's not surprising. Anyone benefiting from a company paying them more than they can afford is going to be angry when it ends.
- swatcoder 3y ago
  > According to the article, they have half a billion dollars in revenue (with currently $154 millon in losses), and that seems plenty to run a company like Unity. This can be true when investment/debt money comes cheap and you're company still looks like a rocket in its launch stages. Investors and lenders are happy to pile money in and expect to cash out while you're in steady orbit, or at least not be the last holder of the hot potato if you don't. But money is no longer cheap and Unity no longer seems to have startup-like growth ahead of it. New fuel isn't coming and the rocket either needs to level off and coast into a steady orbit or come crashing back to earth. Raising revenue and cutting costs is how executives try to stabilize the darn thing. From the outside, it's looking doubtful that they'll be able to do that, but they don't have many alternatives.

by yodon 3y ago

corethree 3y ago

That's a better frame. The lay offs were necessary. The title frames it as if the layoffs were unnecessary. The title is technically true but the way it's worded is manipulative.

asdajksah2123 3y ago
There's a lot of companies laying off people even though they're making increasing profits. Unity isn't one of those (even if the C suite was being paid $0 since some are arguing that the top brass salaries are too high). It doesn't make sense to hold them up as an example of a company doing bad layoffs, especially since there's many other very obvious things to criticize them for.

OskarS 3y ago

According to the article, they have half a billion dollars in revenue (with currently $154 millon in losses), and that seems plenty to run a company like Unity. Lay-offs are rough, but looking at the numbers, they make sense in a cold-hearted capitalist sort-of way if the goal is to reach profitability. Certainly much more so than the runtime fee thing.

giantg2 3y ago
It really depends. A company has to at least break even for longterm success. Otherwise, there won't be enough money to pay workers.
- dartos 3y ago
  Tell that to the entire tech sector pre-2020.
  - dragontamer 3y ago
    It's still the truth, even if the tech sector forgot the truth.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
$921M loss in 2022. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/U/unity-software/n... $570M loss just through Sep 30. https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c99810-0173-4d43-888c-b5feba311d3f.pdf https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001810806/19c9981...
- riku_iki 3y ago
  That form says that out of 570M loss, 250M was from repurchase of stocks, but maybe they then spend it on RSUs for employees.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Yes, share buybacks for the purposes of returning cash to shareholders (and dividends) are not expenses on an income statement, hence they are not included in the calculation for net income.
    - riku_iki 3y ago
      In this case it is on income statement
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        No, it is not. Page 6 has the breakdown for operating expenses, which probably means it was for compensation to employees. There is no reason to incorporate distributions to shareholders on an income statement. The whole point is to figure out how profitable the business is, and how much is left for the shareholders.
Frogeman 3y ago
Do you know the difference between revenue and profit?
300bps 3y ago
OK imagine you have $500 million in revenue and $154 million in losses. That means you've been selling $1.00 for 70 cents. Not sustainable. If their customers don't like what they're doing, it's not surprising. Because anyone buying $1.00 for 70 cents is going to be angry when it ends. If their developers don't like what they're doing, it's not surprising. Anyone benefiting from a company paying them more than they can afford is going to be angry when it ends.
swatcoder 3y ago
> According to the article, they have half a billion dollars in revenue (with currently $154 millon in losses), and that seems plenty to run a company like Unity. This can be true when investment/debt money comes cheap and you're company still looks like a rocket in its launch stages. Investors and lenders are happy to pile money in and expect to cash out while you're in steady orbit, or at least not be the last holder of the hot potato if you don't. But money is no longer cheap and Unity no longer seems to have startup-like growth ahead of it. New fuel isn't coming and the rocket either needs to level off and coast into a steady orbit or come crashing back to earth. Raising revenue and cutting costs is how executives try to stabilize the darn thing. From the outside, it's looking doubtful that they'll be able to do that, but they don't have many alternatives.