
Forbes Revises Estimated Net Worth of Theranos Founder to $0 - bane
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2016/06/01/from-4-5-billion-to-nothing-forbes-revises-estimated-net-worth-of-theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes/#4b67e60d2f29
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atonse
I'm all for exposing Theranos' fraud, but here's a story by the same
journalist from Forbes, just 8 months ago:
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/07/02/bloody-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/07/02/bloody-
amazing/#3de8ae5f2094), without any real questions about the validity of their
technology – just a rehashing of the same PR message.

Forbes did absolutely _nothing_ to actually expose Theranos, instead they
added to the never-ending hype-machine that the media heaped on to Theranos.
So now they've joined the never-ending dance over Theranos' grave.

Just a good reminder of how much of an echo chamber media coverage tends to be
nowadays.

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TYPE_FASTER
This is an article by Forbes, about an article by Forbes, with a clickbait
headline. Nice.

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brainflake
While looking at the cap structure might lead to this conclusion, I would bet
the farm on the fact that she's gotten some cash out of all of these rounds,
or simply through bonuses. Being the CEO of a high profile company (at least
in fundraising circles) she can easily make the argument for it.

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paulpauper
I thought she was worth $400 million, but liquidation preferences means she is
possibly worth nothing

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charlesdm
I'd assume she cashed out some? Nowhere near $400m or $4.5bn, but at least
tens of millions?

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NDizzle
Nope. The highs and lows came too quickly.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
"Net worth of 0" is still doing a lot better than plenty of people in this
country.

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madiathomas
Hahaha. You are so right. Majority of people have negative net worths. They
owe more than they own.

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slackstation
Man, Forbes and others just keep hammering her with hit pieces. We get it, you
don't like her. Her company's tech didn't pan out. Everyone wanted so
desperately for her to succeed that they praised her as a fully formed, late
stage Steve Jobs in a dress. It's as if they want to hurt her feelings more
than report any actual substantive news.

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freyr
> Her company's tech didn't pan out.

That's about the most generous way of possibly framing it. She apparently
deceived investors, the media, and the public, potentially putting people's
health at risk in the process. And this deception made her one of the richest
people in the world, at least on paper. Like it or not, it's a pretty big
story and it will be reported on.

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mhuffman
This is the point! These are the actions that people go to prison for, and
some people are like "stop picking on her".

If this were an middle-aged white man of privilege, the same people wouldn't
rest until he was sharing a cell with Bernie Madoff

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braythwayt
I have no idea what you are trying to say here. Are you trying to suggest that
she is being defended by feminists and people of colour? That there is some
SJW conspiracy to defend her because she is a poor, oppressed woman in a world
of bad men?

I'm struggling to decide whether such a conspiracy theory is best described as
"lunacy" or "cuckoo." Neither is strong enough.

She is a white person of privilege. Her entire story is one of privilege, of
using her connections to ascend to stratospheric heights. And all the while,
she and her backers have been perpetrating a fraud involving people's health.

I think that if you actually talk to people who care about "white middle-aged
men of privilege," you will find that they are disgusted by what she has
perpetrated.

If you are going to make claims about the people who ask us to "stop picking
on her," I think the onus is on you to demonstrate that these same people
would have a different perspective if she was middle-aged and male.

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tbyehl
Nothing in there about Forbes learning a lesson with regards to
sensationalizing someone's "net worth" when their assets are composed solely
of sheets of paper with limited liquidity?

Heck, can they even support this new $0 number? They're saying Theranos has
raised $724,000,000. Elizabeth Holmes didn't take any money off the table?

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a_small_island
This article was flagged yesterday on HN and resulting discussion...

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weston
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11814512](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11814512)

