
Meet the Man Who Sold His Fate to Investors at $1 a Share - cwan
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/03/ipo-man/all/
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wallacrw
One of the most fascinating articles I've read in a long time.

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dgreensp
This is so perfect, a parable for our age. A man with balls but no guts,
deferring to the sort of terrible decisions made in boardrooms everywhere.
Even when he knows what he wants, he wants the decision to come from someone
else.

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X4
This is the first time I want to downvote a story! This guy is crazy and I
know that he wants to play the "Trueman Show" to get money through shares,
while he literally puts money above human value. So egoistic... I'm speechless
and shocked Mike!

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j_s
Previous discussion, ~187 comments back when this was published in March:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5454147](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5454147)

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huherto
I recently moved to USA and just noticed the extend of fame of the
Kardashians. So I did a little research and it turns down that they don't have
any special skills or talents. They are just "famous for being famous".

Imagine that a TV producer reads the article and decides to make a show about
Mike Merrill where people get to vote what he does with his life. I can
imagine a situation where the value of KMikeyM will soar. Once you become
famous your value is not given by your own productivity. It is a strange
world, but some people have been able to convert fame into money.

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lotsofcows
Didn't David Bowie do this 20 or 30 years ago?

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benjamincburns
There's plenty of discussion here (and the original thread back in March)
about the social/moral/ethical issues behind this. What about the legal side?
Is there any way he's doing this legally - in such a way that the SEC, FTC, or
similar gov't entities wouldn't shit all over it if they decided to pay
attention? Even if he created a corporation with real stock, is it possible
that he's actually legally bound to it?

In other words, does the continued value of the stock hinge on your faith in
his word, and your faith that the government won't someday intervene?

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gamblor956
It's perfectly legal, since he isn't legally obligated to do what his
shareholders vote. Moreover, the fact that his shareholders voted for him to
do something (or not do something) would not be defensible in any legal
proceding. (An individual is distinct from a corporation; a contract that only
binds the corporation does not also bind him.)

Also, while the dude promised to keep his shares non-voting, he didn't make a
legally-enforceable promise, so he can simply vote his 96% anytime he feels
like it.

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benjamincburns
So if what you're saying is true, and assuming that you're legally buying
stock in an actual corporation, the value only hinges on your faith that he'll
keep his word.

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chasing
He created 100,000 shares. 3,711 of those shares are in other peoples' hands.
Sounds like he still controls about 96% of himself. So why does he care about
their votes?

Anyway: This whole thing seems wildly narcissistic. Who gives a shit if he
moves in with his girlfriend or gets a vasectomy? These are issues to be
decided between KMikeyM and his friends/family, not someone who gave him a few
bucks for some fake "shares." Especially if he doesn't know that someone
personally.

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jonknee
It sounds like you didn't even skim the article... Here's a portion of the
opening introduction:

> Over the next 10 days, 12 of his friends and acquaintances bought 929
> shares, and Merrill ended up with a handful of extra cash. He kept the
> remaining 99.1 percent of himself but promised that his shares would be
> nonvoting: He’d let his new stockholders decide what he should do with his
> life.

He cares because he's a non-voting shareholder and the shareholders care
because they are his friends and family.

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cosmie
>He cares because he's a non-voting shareholder and the shareholders care
because they are his friends and family.

His _original_ shareholders were friends and family, however after it/he took
off online and an exchange was built, a large portion of his voting shares are
now owned by internet strangers.

