A Potential Earthquake in the Videogame Industry: UNITY Install Fees

[Ryujin]

I imagine it looking more like this:

Zuckerbot actually wins martial arts competitions.

 

[overgeeked]

Zuckerbot actually wins martial arts competitions.

I wonder how much that costs him.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'm still waiting for Musk to cash the cheque that his mouth wrote and get stomped by the Zuckerbot. We're almost a month on now from when that fight was supposed to take place.

The trouble with that fight is that it's like, how can they both lose? Because really, that's the only thing to root for.

 

[CleverNickName]

The trouble with that fight is that it's like, how can they both lose? Because really, that's the only thing to root for.

 

[Ryujin]

The trouble with that fight is that it's like, how can they both lose? Because really, that's the only thing to root for.

Zuck pounds Musk into a coma and gets sent to prison?

 

[Ryujin]

I wonder how much that costs him.

Presumably how much the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructors cost, because from all accounts he's actually pretty good.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Zuck pounds Musk into a coma and gets sent to prison?

 

[Gradine]

Presumably how much the best Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructors cost, because from all accounts he's actually pretty good.

At least a Blue Belt, I think.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

I wanted to leave this be ... but I just couldn't.

I am not sure where this idea came about, but it's something I've heard a lot of, and it makes absolutely no sense. This is Econ 101.

Acme, Inc., has 100 shares of stock.
Bozo owns 60 shares of the stock (he is the majority owner).

Acme is currently trading at $10 a share. That means if someone wants to buy out Bozo, they would need to pay Bozo $600 for his shares.

What you are saying (and what others say in other circumstances) is that what Bozo really wants is to drive down the shares to $6 a share, so he can sell them for ... wait for it ... $360.

This is the part what someone posts the underwear gnomes and writes, "PROFIT!!!!!"

That's not how the stock market works. It's even less understandable when you have people like the Unity CEO, who is likely also receiving compensation partly in stock options, which only make money when the stock goes up. And in terms of stock that he holds outright, of course he wants the highest possible value for it.

Driving the stock price down only helps potential buyers, not the seller. I truly don't understand why this idea has taken hold. Again, these are publicly traded companies, which means that at any given time the shares are freely transferable at the price point they are trading.


(For reference, according to public documents, Unity's President and CEO hold approximately 3.2 million shares. That is less than 1% of the approximately 383 million shares outstanding as of summer 2023).

Apparently Unity has been losing a lot of money in recent quarters, so maybe the shares wouldn't be seen as a good longterm investment?

At least compared to what could be purchased with the money from a buyout sooner than later? Maybe there are other perks?

I received a reply on Reddit explaining how it might work:

apelikecoding
·1 day ago
^^^
While the sale was scheduled last year, the announcement could absolutely have been timed post sale which may still qualify for insider trading.

The more important point is that manipulation of stock price in order to trigger an event that would allow for a conversion of stock outside of the normal, contractually limited sale, schedule is absolutely a possibility. I've worked for companies that made decisions that resulted in a significant drop in stock price followed by a buyout where the execs made an insane amount on their stock conversion and the board was able to extract cash and offload debt from other holdings onto the target company / division.

There are some very smart people who engineer these vulture capital schemes where solid companies with stable products suddenly tank and everyone loses except the ones with the preferred stock.

Private capital firms are the primary motivator for this sort of thing since they have complex portfolios that span many companies and the scheme isn't fully visible until well after the dust settles. Since the entities with the majority of the stock are usually in on the scam it makes a class action suit by the hoi polloi of shareholders extremely unlikely even when it's obvious that they got fleeced.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Apparently Unity has been losing a lot of money in recent quarters, so maybe the shares wouldn't be seen as a good longterm investment?

At least compared to what could be purchased with the money from a buyout sooner than later? Maybe there are other perks?

I received a reply on Reddit explaining how it might work:

{snip}

No offense, but that's just more conspiracy-minded stuff. Just examine it closely ... no ability to verify any claims, talk of schemes, and, of course, the usual nefarious powers that collude on a scam with no paper trail. Which, if you know anything about strike suits ... is a dubious proposition at best. And I'm being kind.

Look, no one denies that there are certainly occasions when a failing company ends up getting bought out, and the executive team ends up getting a better deal than other stakeholders ... which is to say, that they get something, and everyone else gets bupkes. And that's unfair if you ask me. But that doesn't mean that they are actively trying to destroy value ... which gives them a WORSE deal. Instead, it's just a sad example of "Heads they win, tails they win less."

Anyway, I would highly recommend reading more sources about economics, and relying less on people at Reddit. IMO.