JonFish85

14 ms·

91.
by JonFish85 10y ago
a) Why they need so much money? "Need" is probably the wrong word. I imagine they're trying to maximize their return: sell enough stock to make lots of money, but not so much as to flood the market. b) Why they are worth so m
92.
by JonFish85 10y ago
I mean, if you're advocating just ditching this whole democracy / republic thing, that's probably a reasonable way forward. Unfortunately it's not as simple as that: Americans are pretty evenly split into thirds on wheth
93.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"All she really did was violate an NDA." Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, this is making VERY light of the situation. It's a bit like saying going to the moon was really just getting out of a vehicle.
94.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Probably the most important one: profit. I believe Apple takes most of, if not all of, the profit in mobile phones.
95.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"Uber to move to self-driving cars" I still don't understand why that scenario requires an Uber. Once self-driving cars are a thing, why does Uber need to exist? Their competitors in that case would be actual car manufacturer
96.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"law to steal money from Uber" Wow, that's impressive. Are you an Uber or Lyft shareholder? Because damn, this is a pretty strong sentiment, especially for a company that basically has flouted the law on it's way to a lo
97.
by JonFish85 10y ago
In regards to the first point, who won? Groupon the company got a ton of cash but man they're in rough shape these days. They're not even really in the same business space either.
98.
by JonFish85 10y ago
The money they raised in their IPO gave them a very long runway. As of a year ago or so they had just over a $1B cash on hand.
99.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Maybe so, but someone has to pay for the subsidies. Whether it's this tax or a different one, the middle class is going to have to take on that burden.
100.
by JonFish85 10y ago
A quick google search brought this up, which might be accurate[1]. It suggests that 2020 is when it is supposed to be enacted now. The Wikipedia article [2] seems less concrete about it, other than to say that there's bipartisan suppor
101.
by JonFish85 10y ago
The problem there is that the subsidy money has to come from somewhere, and the longer that tax gets pushed back, the more we have to do other shenanigans to come up with the money: borrow more, raise taxes elsewhere, etc. As it is, the sub
102.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Let's also not forget that a significant part of this hasn't even kicked in yet, the so-called Cadillac Tax has been kicked down the road, but is potentially enormous. Those who pay the most for their health care plan are going to
103.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Is it a flaw or a feature? This might be more akin to the local government saying that you can't run a business in a residential area (i.e. zoning laws) than it is to squashing "private transactions or agreements".
104.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"It certainly would've been better financially, though honestly, the difference is "set for life" vs. "set for a long time", so I'm not certain it would make a material difference in my life now" Let&
105.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Why Uber? What do they really have, at the end of the day? They're one of several companies investing in driverless cars. They're competing with companies that have cash cows (e.g. Google and Apple) as well as companies with a cen
106.
by JonFish85 10y ago
But they're not your standard monopoly in the sense that they can charge anything they want. The city retains at least nominal oversight on what they charge. If it's a utility, they're subject to more scrutiny than is probabl
107.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"Imagine a major city where 80%+ of the vehicles are run by a single company and the rest are paying a toll to be on the road." Wait, what? Is that really the goal? Is that even legal? I guess the closest approximation of that is
108.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"Do you realize that most Uber drivers aren't working it as a full time job? They're working when they have downtime and can make a few bucks." Isn't the entire point of "minimum wage" because of thinking
109.
by JonFish85 10y ago
As much as people seem to think "driverless cars" are obviously Uber's future, it's a pretty monumental change to their business model. It seems that their model now is to own essentially nothing; drivers own the cars an
110.
by JonFish85 10y ago
I bet the investors did OK. Some employees might get a nice retention package, but they'll have to sign a document stating their stock/options are now worth $0, so they can take or leave the retention deal. The founders probably d
111.
by JonFish85 10y ago
I'm not saying anyone got screwed, I'm saying that common stock probably is worth $0 (for similar reasons: quick exit, not much time to really build value, etc). "Generous retention" can vary drastically. The reason I me
112.
by JonFish85 10y ago
My thinking: 1) If they were doing well and got a $30m buyout offer, they'd probably have gone out to raise more money for a much higher valuation. Money is cheap, and if they have an offer in that range, a VC would probably cut them a
113.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Almost certainly an amount that wipes out common stock holders. People they want to keep will get a retention offer, but with the acknowledgment that their stock in Chariot is now worth $0.
114.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Ok, maybe a better analog is that Airbnb should have rules adhering to the laws for landlords?
115.
by JonFish85 10y ago
It's already very in the red, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
116.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Profitable can have many more meanings than you'd think. On the surface, to me, profitable means you make more money than you spend (subtracting all the costs of doing business, acquiring customers, taxes, payroll, etc). Depending on w
117.
by JonFish85 10y ago
"was purchased via an asset sale and us common stock shareholders got zilch" Just based on this (I am not a lawyer or giving financial advice), I'd guess that you can have legal standing to your share, which is probably $0. I
118.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Wow, there's a lot going on here. It's probably just easiest to auction it off this way and be done with it.
119.
by JonFish85 10y ago
Some scenarios (in no real particular order): - A Zynga-like order: give back unvested stock or you're fired - There were "hidden" bank loans / lines of credit that need to be paid back first. These may not be known to e
120.
by JonFish85 10y ago
These articles make front-page HN every couple of weeks and I find it very tiresome. Stock options most likely aren't going to be "worth it" (which is not to say that they're going to be entirely worthless, but $25k befo

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