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Wait, how is bundling hardware and software sketchy or illegal? That's the entire business model of many of the world's most successful companies.
by mike_hearn 2y ago
Wait, how is bundling hardware and software sketchy or illegal? That's the entire business model of many of the world's most successful companies.
- foldr 2y agoPresumably based on intent. In the extreme case, you'd be selling someone a lettuce for a lot of money with "free" bundled software (so that they can then get some kind of tax write-off when the lettuce goes rotten).
- seanhunter 2y agoNothing sketchy about that per se, but the fraud element of the case centred around the allegation that autonomy didn't correctly account for the distinction between hardware and software sales when giving numbers to HP leading to an inflated (software based) multiple being used for the valuation at acquisition. They were (allegedly) selling expensive disk drives for cost plus and telling investors they were making a software sale which obviously have very different growth characteristics as businesses.