
NBCUniversal Sold $500M Stake in Snapchat - avonmach
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-quietly-sold-500-million-stake-snapchat-1283201
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rvz
> Three years ago this month, as Snap Inc. went public, NBCUniversal announced
> that it had invested $500 million in the company.

Not sure why you would invest in Snap at their IPO price at $17, given that
they had no prospect of profitability or any signal of growth due to
Instagram's aggressive copying strategy at the time.

Compared to three years ago, $10 is a bargin, but no better than the $5 price
in early 2019. Better wait for it to enter single digits.

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AznHisoka
Of course if they had known it would have fallen to $5, they would have
waited. Anyone would have. But nobody has the fortune to invest with 20/20
hindsight

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vsareto
They gambled on a profit-less company IPO and lost. I'd say there was some
hindsight.

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AznHisoka
Great. I assume you shorted them at IPO and reaped a fortune. Otherwise, my
point stands :)

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8ytecoder
There’s a huge difference between having the foresight to say this is risky
and predicting it will crash to $5 in 372 days. One is prudent investing the
other is gambling.

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aussiegreenie
There is ___NO DIFFERENCE_ __between investing and gambling.

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AznHisoka
I totally agree. Maybe there are different degrees of gambling ie informed vs
blind, but it is all gambling. Unless you are talking about fixed income.

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Dirlewanger
I wonder how much they regret not selling to FB

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dillonmckay
Not sure I understand.

The IPO of Snap raised $3.4 billion w a valuation of $24 billion.

Evan Spiegel has (maybe not this month) a net worth of over $2 billion.

Zuck was offering $3 billion.

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namdnay
Without contradicting your general point, Spiegel’s bet worth is so illiquid
(so solid? :) ) that I’m not sure what it really would be if he wanted to get
cash out

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vxNsr
I'd guess that a lot of the offer was in SO. so also illiquid. Though FB stock
is worth way more than Snap stock so he probably made the wrong choice, but
who knows.

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likpok
FB is less illiquid than SNAP for Evan. If he sells 50% of his SNAP shares,
people will get concerned about his investment in the business. A mid-level
exec (or even high profile acquisition) selling a bunch of FB stock doesn’t
affect the price much.

But he probably likes running the company more than he’d like the extra money.

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dillonmckay
That is the key, he still had cash and control of a platform.

Very different situation for Jack Dorsey w/ Twitter.

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tus88
Lots o people be liquidating assets right now...

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varshithr
Maybe they're little late to the party

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aussiegreenie
Who was silly enough to buy it??

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qxmat
Liquidity problems?

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sixhobbits
I never understand the "Quietly" part in headlines like this. The fact that
it's headline news is kind of self-refuting, and even without that, where do
people usually shout about the positions that they're selling?

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nolok
It's part of the headline newsspeak bingo game. My personnal dislike is to
"this SLAMS that". It's one of the many many reason why news sites lose value
and identity, everything is instant, everything is a big news, everything is
written in a way that shocks to get clics and views, and the actual
information comes second place.

~~~
Pigo
My favorite is the question headlines.

Is Mexico in talks with the US about drug cartels?

Are you chicken nuggets covered in covid-19?

Is Trump ritualistically sacrificing children in the oval office?

They're leaving it up in the air, so you can't call them on writing garbage
they barely try to back up.

~~~
jaywalk
If the headline is a question, the answer is always no.

~~~
Pigo
That's a good rule of thumb

