5 ms·

Being taken private does not mean Not being beholden to show growth every quarter, in fact often then private equity takes a Tech company private the impetus r

Being taken private does not mean Not being beholden to show growth every quarter, in fact often then private equity takes a Tech company private the impetus return value to the new owners is even higher than if it was still public The pattern of Private Equity take over is clear 1. Buy out public stock 2. Extreme Cost Cutting to make the company profitable by sacrificing Engineering and Customer Service 3. Massive Increase in prices to make the company profitable by sacrificing long term market share for short term profits 4. Sell the company again (or in pieces) before it goes bankrupt due to 1 and 2. This has happened time and time again.

eli 3y ago
That certainly happens but it’s not the only way to go private or even the only playbook for PE
- phpisthebest 3y ago
  I have been through it many times as a customer of tech companies, I would say the outline I posted above it the most common pattern I have experienced So much so that today if one of my vendors gets bought out by PE we immediately start planning a migration of that technology Most recent example is Broadcom who uses a PE-like playbook, we are now evaluating what can replace vSphere...
ClumsyPilot 3y ago
> Sell the company again (or in pieces) before it goes bankrupt due to 1 and 2. This shocks the concience for me - how is there always someone stupid enought to buy a comoany thats a ticking time bomb?
- dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
  Memorex It was a good name that got bought and then came out with crappy products we who used to work at RadioSnack had to sell. Amazing how •consumers• drop money on brand name alone.
  - sarchertech 3y ago
    Happened to several formerly respected tool brands too. I’ve heard the process called “reputation mining.”
    - olddustytrail 3y ago
      I guess you probably meant physical tools, but that immediately brought Norton to mind for me.
    - phpisthebest 3y ago
      Not Happened, it Happens every day with Tool and Outdoor Power Equipment.... This is still a common and ongoing process. Hell the same brand is manufactured by several companies, for example Brand X may have a pressure washer that is made by MTD, but a Lawn Mower that is made by someone else, and a chainsaw that is made by a 3rd company. All with different levels of quality. Even if you see a list of who "owns" the brand, many of them contract with each other to make the tools and equipment so it hard to tell who is actually making the product.
      - mark-r 3y ago
        That's exactly how Sears' Kenmore brand used to operate. I don't think they made anything themselves. I bought a Kenmore garbage disposal because it was an obvious rebadge of a major brand but was $10 cheaper.
        hakfoo 3y ago
        That works as long as there's a long-term stake in the brand. Because Kenmore was a "face" of Sears, who had a vested interest in staying in business, they had a motivation to say "let's pick competent suppliers, and hold them to specific quality metrics." If that "major brand" model started getting returned too much, the next model Kenmore would be sourced from someone else. Today's brand resurrections seem like less of a long-term play, and more as a shot of "instant credibility" for more short-lived products. My last office had a bunch of Westinghouse-brand LCD monitors. (That pretty much dates it to the late 2000s) They were competent enough, but the brand basically vanished after a couple of years. I suspect they discovered there was little value in the brand as a long-term venture-- they probably didn't actually sell very many based on "Grandma's 14" Westinghouse CRT was awesome back in 1966" and there wasn't enough market impact to fully jolt it back to life as a memorable, going-forward brand.
- phpisthebest 3y ago
  As someone else said, in whole it is often a tax diversion, a purchase designed to fail to bundle other failures to write off in one go, or various other things Could also be Patent Capture if the companies has alot of patents If the company is large it will be sold in pieces to individual competitors of the different market segments. If the price is right a large competitor will buy it just to shut it down, basically a marketing cost for customer acquisition.. There are plenty of "valid" reasons a failing company driven into the ground by management is still able to be sold...
Projectiboga 3y ago
That is under USA tax laws, not sure if that model can happen in Japan. But you left out the main PE track here, load up in debt and train target company's cash.
AlgorithmicTime 3y ago
[dead]

eli 3y ago

That certainly happens but it’s not the only way to go private or even the only playbook for PE

phpisthebest 3y ago
I have been through it many times as a customer of tech companies, I would say the outline I posted above it the most common pattern I have experienced So much so that today if one of my vendors gets bought out by PE we immediately start planning a migration of that technology Most recent example is Broadcom who uses a PE-like playbook, we are now evaluating what can replace vSphere...

ClumsyPilot 3y ago

> Sell the company again (or in pieces) before it goes bankrupt due to 1 and 2. This shocks the concience for me - how is there always someone stupid enought to buy a comoany thats a ticking time bomb?

dirtyhippiefree 3y ago
Memorex It was a good name that got bought and then came out with crappy products we who used to work at RadioSnack had to sell. Amazing how •consumers• drop money on brand name alone.
- sarchertech 3y ago
  Happened to several formerly respected tool brands too. I’ve heard the process called “reputation mining.”
  - olddustytrail 3y ago
    I guess you probably meant physical tools, but that immediately brought Norton to mind for me.
  - phpisthebest 3y ago
    Not Happened, it Happens every day with Tool and Outdoor Power Equipment.... This is still a common and ongoing process. Hell the same brand is manufactured by several companies, for example Brand X may have a pressure washer that is made by MTD, but a Lawn Mower that is made by someone else, and a chainsaw that is made by a 3rd company. All with different levels of quality. Even if you see a list of who "owns" the brand, many of them contract with each other to make the tools and equipment so it hard to tell who is actually making the product.
    - mark-r 3y ago
      That's exactly how Sears' Kenmore brand used to operate. I don't think they made anything themselves. I bought a Kenmore garbage disposal because it was an obvious rebadge of a major brand but was $10 cheaper.
      - hakfoo 3y ago
        That works as long as there's a long-term stake in the brand. Because Kenmore was a "face" of Sears, who had a vested interest in staying in business, they had a motivation to say "let's pick competent suppliers, and hold them to specific quality metrics." If that "major brand" model started getting returned too much, the next model Kenmore would be sourced from someone else. Today's brand resurrections seem like less of a long-term play, and more as a shot of "instant credibility" for more short-lived products. My last office had a bunch of Westinghouse-brand LCD monitors. (That pretty much dates it to the late 2000s) They were competent enough, but the brand basically vanished after a couple of years. I suspect they discovered there was little value in the brand as a long-term venture-- they probably didn't actually sell very many based on "Grandma's 14" Westinghouse CRT was awesome back in 1966" and there wasn't enough market impact to fully jolt it back to life as a memorable, going-forward brand.
phpisthebest 3y ago
As someone else said, in whole it is often a tax diversion, a purchase designed to fail to bundle other failures to write off in one go, or various other things Could also be Patent Capture if the companies has alot of patents If the company is large it will be sold in pieces to individual competitors of the different market segments. If the price is right a large competitor will buy it just to shut it down, basically a marketing cost for customer acquisition.. There are plenty of "valid" reasons a failing company driven into the ground by management is still able to be sold...

Projectiboga 3y ago

That is under USA tax laws, not sure if that model can happen in Japan. But you left out the main PE track here, load up in debt and train target company's cash.

AlgorithmicTime 3y ago

[dead]