3 ms·

Because Raspberry Pi is trying to IPO

mytailorisrich 2y ago
They did in June. https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RPI/raspberry-pi-holdings-plc/company-page https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RPI/raspberry-pi-h...
- veltas 2y ago
  Can someone explain to me why they're even allowed to do this? I thought they were a charity.
  - matt-p 2y ago
    Charity and trading company were/are separate (as practically required, in the UK) A charity can't really trade in the same way a company can. For example a charity can't register for VAT (sales tax). The way it normally works is that a charity exists which takes donations and does charitable stuff, then a seperate company exists which makes money and sells stuff (does trade) and it happens to be run by the same folks, and donate money to the charity (or have some kind of 75% of our profits get donated to charity) promise. That's super trivial to unwind as the charity often has no formal ownership over the trading company, it is really just a beneficiary.
    - matt-p 2y ago
      To be fair to the raspberry pi group, I think they were in a difficult position and the whole thing was getting much, much bigger than they ever had anticipated. On the grapevine, they had more money than they knew how to get rid of in accordance with their very narrow charitable objectives.
    - veltas 2y ago
      The bit that feels dishonest is they share a brand, and publicly present themselves as a charity, and actually it's for personal gain. Sure they dotted their i's, but it seems like the key difference between the RPI foundation and the Captain Tom Foundation[1] is they have better lawyers. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/21/captain-tom-family-personally-benefited-from-charity-they-founded-report-finds https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/21/captain-tom-...
      - matt-p 2y ago
        No two separate things, you cannot, basically, trade under a charity structure, it would be almost legally impossible for the charity to be selling the raspberry Pis. Captain tom was just a badly run charity, they didn't trade.
        mytailorisrich 2y ago
        Yes, setting up a commercial subsidiary is the standard way to go to trade in order to raise money for a charity. But I think a charity should spend most of its income on charitable activities. According to its accounts the Foundation spends £12m on that out of a £213m income from trading, which seems very small.
        matt-p 2y ago
        Sure, but they're now a publicly traded company aren't they, it couldn't be say 60% whereas <=10% is a decent chunk but can still be justified to shareholders in the context of renting the trademark (which I HOPE resides in the foundation) and good will/marketing.
        mytailorisrich 2y ago
        That's not quite how it is. The commercial subsidiary is a publicly-traded company and the Foundation (the charity) owns about 49% of it (last year it wasn't publicly traded and they owed ~98% of it iirc). The Foundation received £213m from "other trading activities" last year (which I interpret as income from their share of the commercial subsidiary) out of a total income of £220m. Out of this, the Foundation spent £12m on "charitable activities" and £195m on "raising funds"... [1] [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5002372/charity-overview https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/ch...
matt-p 2y ago
They listed last summer, so now have public company incentives - I get it. However given the cost of RAM is quite cheap, sales are slower after the initial Pi5 rush and there are a number of competitors would it have been much better for the company to say 4GB is entry level for $50, 8GB for $65, 16GB for $95 Would they have sold more units? Improved the range of software that can run on a RPI, increasing demand further?
- 05 2y ago
  It's probably targeted at inspirational buyers who don't actually do anything with their boards but want to have the latest and greatest - whaling. Anyone who knows what they're doing is capable of using a cheaper Allwinner or Rockchip SBC or flashing a supported Android TV to Linux because SBCs are for some reason pricier than the same SoC that comes with a plastic box and power brick.. or even (gasp) to run their blinky LED off a $3 Aliexpress ESP32 board.

They did in June. https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RPI/raspberry-pi-holdings-plc/company-page https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/RPI/raspberry-pi-h...

veltas 2y ago
Can someone explain to me why they're even allowed to do this? I thought they were a charity.
- matt-p 2y ago
  Charity and trading company were/are separate (as practically required, in the UK) A charity can't really trade in the same way a company can. For example a charity can't register for VAT (sales tax). The way it normally works is that a charity exists which takes donations and does charitable stuff, then a seperate company exists which makes money and sells stuff (does trade) and it happens to be run by the same folks, and donate money to the charity (or have some kind of 75% of our profits get donated to charity) promise. That's super trivial to unwind as the charity often has no formal ownership over the trading company, it is really just a beneficiary.
  - matt-p 2y ago
    To be fair to the raspberry pi group, I think they were in a difficult position and the whole thing was getting much, much bigger than they ever had anticipated. On the grapevine, they had more money than they knew how to get rid of in accordance with their very narrow charitable objectives.
  - veltas 2y ago
    The bit that feels dishonest is they share a brand, and publicly present themselves as a charity, and actually it's for personal gain. Sure they dotted their i's, but it seems like the key difference between the RPI foundation and the Captain Tom Foundation[1] is they have better lawyers. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/21/captain-tom-family-personally-benefited-from-charity-they-founded-report-finds https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/21/captain-tom-...
    - matt-p 2y ago
      No two separate things, you cannot, basically, trade under a charity structure, it would be almost legally impossible for the charity to be selling the raspberry Pis. Captain tom was just a badly run charity, they didn't trade.
      - mytailorisrich 2y ago
        Yes, setting up a commercial subsidiary is the standard way to go to trade in order to raise money for a charity. But I think a charity should spend most of its income on charitable activities. According to its accounts the Foundation spends £12m on that out of a £213m income from trading, which seems very small.
        matt-p 2y ago
        Sure, but they're now a publicly traded company aren't they, it couldn't be say 60% whereas <=10% is a decent chunk but can still be justified to shareholders in the context of renting the trademark (which I HOPE resides in the foundation) and good will/marketing.
        mytailorisrich 2y ago
        That's not quite how it is. The commercial subsidiary is a publicly-traded company and the Foundation (the charity) owns about 49% of it (last year it wasn't publicly traded and they owed ~98% of it iirc). The Foundation received £213m from "other trading activities" last year (which I interpret as income from their share of the commercial subsidiary) out of a total income of £220m. Out of this, the Foundation spent £12m on "charitable activities" and £195m on "raising funds"... [1] [1] https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5002372/charity-overview https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/ch...

matt-p 2y ago

They listed last summer, so now have public company incentives - I get it. However given the cost of RAM is quite cheap, sales are slower after the initial Pi5 rush and there are a number of competitors would it have been much better for the company to say 4GB is entry level for $50, 8GB for $65, 16GB for $95 Would they have sold more units? Improved the range of software that can run on a RPI, increasing demand further?

05 2y ago
It's probably targeted at inspirational buyers who don't actually do anything with their boards but want to have the latest and greatest - whaling. Anyone who knows what they're doing is capable of using a cheaper Allwinner or Rockchip SBC or flashing a supported Android TV to Linux because SBCs are for some reason pricier than the same SoC that comes with a plastic box and power brick.. or even (gasp) to run their blinky LED off a $3 Aliexpress ESP32 board.