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I am sorry, but this article is inane. At the time he cashed out, there were no guarantees regarding the size of the eventual liquidity event. He cashed out a

I am sorry, but this article is inane. At the time he cashed out, there were no guarantees regarding the size of the eventual liquidity event. He cashed out a portion of his stake for an assured $340 million which is more than enough to live comfortably for the rest of his life (and likely a few succeeding generations). Why does it matter that he might not have missed an "opportunity" to be a billionaire? I guess the author has never heard the phrase, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

nashequilibrium 13y ago
It's amazing how Forbes has fallen in the last 10yrs. It used to be the go to magazine along with fortune but Forbes now looks like a collection of amateur blog posts with sensationalist headlines to get clicks.
- theklub 13y ago
  Absolutely, they love their lists that make you click through 10+ pages reloading ads every time.
- volaski 13y ago
  Not to mention all these ads and sharing buttons with poor taste
vampirechicken 13y ago
> Why does it matter that he might not have missed an "opportunity" to be a billionaire? Because Forbes is a magazine that is published by billionaires, for billionaires.
adventured 13y ago
Ev was a seasoned entrepreneur at the point he sold that stake, definitely a smart move to take something off the table. $340 million is an immense amount of 'fuck you' money for something that had no business strategy at the time. Twitter could have very easily gone the way of Tumblr, resulting in a loss of 2/3 of Ev's value (and Tumblr is a wildly successful example).
bradbatt 13y ago
Completely agree. What's the difference between $340 million and over $1 billion? Bigger boat. Bigger plane. Other than that, nothing.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Exactly, even if we assume insanely bad planning so he exercises and sells shares on the same day making them ordinary income (resulting in about 49% paid in taxes, (38% federal, 11% state) that would net him like 170M$ which just sitting in a t-bill ladder at 1% would give him 1.7M/year tax free income, forever. I could probably squeeze by on that :-)

nashequilibrium 13y ago

It's amazing how Forbes has fallen in the last 10yrs. It used to be the go to magazine along with fortune but Forbes now looks like a collection of amateur blog posts with sensationalist headlines to get clicks.

theklub 13y ago
Absolutely, they love their lists that make you click through 10+ pages reloading ads every time.
volaski 13y ago
Not to mention all these ads and sharing buttons with poor taste

vampirechicken 13y ago

> Why does it matter that he might not have missed an "opportunity" to be a billionaire? Because Forbes is a magazine that is published by billionaires, for billionaires.

adventured 13y ago

Ev was a seasoned entrepreneur at the point he sold that stake, definitely a smart move to take something off the table. $340 million is an immense amount of 'fuck you' money for something that had no business strategy at the time. Twitter could have very easily gone the way of Tumblr, resulting in a loss of 2/3 of Ev's value (and Tumblr is a wildly successful example).

bradbatt 13y ago

Completely agree. What's the difference between $340 million and over $1 billion? Bigger boat. Bigger plane. Other than that, nothing.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Exactly, even if we assume insanely bad planning so he exercises and sells shares on the same day making them ordinary income (resulting in about 49% paid in taxes, (38% federal, 11% state) that would net him like 170M$ which just sitting in a t-bill ladder at 1% would give him 1.7M/year tax free income, forever. I could probably squeeze by on that :-)