4 ms·

A fun tangent to this is ESR's "Surprised By Wealth" where he accidentally became paper rich off VA Linux stock but never made any real money due to the crash.

by wmf 11mo ago

A fun tangent to this is ESR's "Surprised By Wealth" where he accidentally became paper rich off VA Linux stock but never made any real money due to the crash. https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37708492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37708492

cheema33 11mo ago
I am not going to shed a tear for ESR. He turned out to be a massive turd.
- wmf 11mo ago
  ESR was always somewhat controversial. People trolled him at the time for what they saw as faux humility and virtue signaling.
mongol 11mo ago
I recall this. But I didn't know he nevet made real money
- justin66 11mo ago
  To make money he would have needed to sell his shares, and they became worthless before the post-IPO lockup period ended.
  - compsciphd 11mo ago
    they shouldn't have been. From wikipedia The company raised $132 million, offering shares at $30/share, but the shares opened for trading at $299/share, before closing at $239.25/share, or 698% above the IPO price, breaking a record for the largest first day gain.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Larry Augustin, the 38-year old founder and chief executive officer of the company, became a billionaire on paper and a 26-year old web developer at the company said she was worth $10 million on paper.[2] By August 2000, the shares were trading at $40 each[2] and only 24 mutual funds held the stock.[15] On December 8, 2000, one year later, after the bursting of the dot com bubble, shares traded at $8.49/share.[16] per his essay he was given 150K shares. Even at the IPO price of $30 a share, that's 4.5 million. Do we not think the investment bank handling his shares would have been willing to take his whole stake at $30 a share? But even if they wouldn't more than 6 months later it was still north of $40 a share (so $6mil or so) and even a year or so after the IPO, after the bubble popped, it was still north of $8 a share (so $1+mil).
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
    - justin66 11mo ago
      I could be wrong! It seems to me like the terms of his options and his trade restrictions (he was a director of the company, he couldn't sell his shares willy-nilly) are important here, but I don't know the specifics. He has, ahem, never exuded a "man of leisure" vibe. More power to him if he's actually loaded, I guess.
      - compsciphd 11mo ago
        I'm not arguing that he's loaded, just that if he didn't make millions off VA, its more due to his own decisions than anything else. I could also be wrong, but it seems he had the opportunity to unload his stake if he really wanted to.
    - lelanthran 11mo ago
      ISTR that the lockup period extended well after the delisting.
      - compsciphd 11mo ago
        a year+ lockup seems insane. 90-180 days would be normal and was still trading above ipo price (not opening price) 180 days after ipo as i documented above. with that said perhaps directors have a different form of lockup, can't say I have any experience with that.
dehrmann 11mo ago
> ESR That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I'd almost forgotten about the webcomic. https://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/ https://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/

by wmf 11mo ago

cheema33 11mo ago

I am not going to shed a tear for ESR. He turned out to be a massive turd.

wmf 11mo ago
ESR was always somewhat controversial. People trolled him at the time for what they saw as faux humility and virtue signaling.

mongol 11mo ago

I recall this. But I didn't know he nevet made real money

justin66 11mo ago
To make money he would have needed to sell his shares, and they became worthless before the post-IPO lockup period ended.
- compsciphd 11mo ago
  they shouldn't have been. From wikipedia The company raised $132 million, offering shares at $30/share, but the shares opened for trading at $299/share, before closing at $239.25/share, or 698% above the IPO price, breaking a record for the largest first day gain.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Larry Augustin, the 38-year old founder and chief executive officer of the company, became a billionaire on paper and a 26-year old web developer at the company said she was worth $10 million on paper.[2] By August 2000, the shares were trading at $40 each[2] and only 24 mutual funds held the stock.[15] On December 8, 2000, one year later, after the bursting of the dot com bubble, shares traded at $8.49/share.[16] per his essay he was given 150K shares. Even at the IPO price of $30 a share, that's 4.5 million. Do we not think the investment bank handling his shares would have been willing to take his whole stake at $30 a share? But even if they wouldn't more than 6 months later it was still north of $40 a share (so $6mil or so) and even a year or so after the IPO, after the bubble popped, it was still north of $8 a share (so $1+mil).
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - justin66 11mo ago
    I could be wrong! It seems to me like the terms of his options and his trade restrictions (he was a director of the company, he couldn't sell his shares willy-nilly) are important here, but I don't know the specifics. He has, ahem, never exuded a "man of leisure" vibe. More power to him if he's actually loaded, I guess.
    - compsciphd 11mo ago
      I'm not arguing that he's loaded, just that if he didn't make millions off VA, its more due to his own decisions than anything else. I could also be wrong, but it seems he had the opportunity to unload his stake if he really wanted to.
  - lelanthran 11mo ago
    ISTR that the lockup period extended well after the delisting.
    - compsciphd 11mo ago
      a year+ lockup seems insane. 90-180 days would be normal and was still trading above ipo price (not opening price) 180 days after ipo as i documented above. with that said perhaps directors have a different form of lockup, can't say I have any experience with that.

dehrmann 11mo ago

> ESR That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I'd almost forgotten about the webcomic. https://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/ https://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/