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> Forbes first became associated with Sierra in 1991, when he agreed to join the company’s board. Ken Williams, Sierra’s co-founder and CEO, considered this a m
by JKCalhoun 2y ago
> Forbes first became associated with Sierra in 1991, when he agreed to join the company’s board. Ken Williams, Sierra’s co-founder and CEO, considered this a major coup...
And then:
> “Have you and Ken ever thought about selling Sierra?” <Forbes> asked her out of the blue one day in the lobby of the Paris hotel.
> “No,” Roberta answered shortly. “We’re not interested.”
> “But if you ever were, what sort of price would you be looking at?”
> “A lot,” Roberta replied, then walked away as quickly as decorum allowed.
Pretty clear which of the two was the better business person.
- influx 2y agoShe also built most of the intellectual property.
- canucker2016 2y agoAnd from Steven Levy's Hackers, she was one of the women in the hot tub for the cover and ad for the game Softporn Adventure, published by the company that was soon renamed to Sierra On-line. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure Interesting to read the link to the Leisure Suit Larry game.
- alexey-salmin 2y agoThere are a couple more photos from that photoset https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-odd-history-of-the-first-erotic-computer-game/383114/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/the-o...
- wileydragonfly 2y agoI always found those photos deeply unsettling. None of the women look particularly happy about being there. “If I don’t do this, Timmy doesn’t get that operation” vibes. The photo in the advertisement was bad enough, the outtakes are worse.
- gopher_space 2y agoThese aren't slice-of-life photos you can deconstruct like this, it's a professional shoot with amateur models. Professional models are paid to look happy to be there after hour three under hot lights. Amateur models thought you were going to snap a few pictures. It's entirely possible that everyone in the photo needs to pee.
- wileydragonfly 2y agoThey’ve been thrown in my face for decades as “oh my god, look at this.” I think every single article about Sierra mentions it. Oh well.
- gopher_space 2y agoOh I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just framing the situation around my experience.
- BrtByte 2y agoYeah, that exchange says so much in just a few lines.
- sc2862 2y agoApologies for my lack of understanding of business, but who was better business person? Was it Roberta because she wasn't interested?
- cyberlurker 2y agoIt’s generally a bad idea to ask someone to name their price. And the right answer to that question is “A lot”.