LA Times (June 5)
In a prime example of “hype and plunder,” Domo’s filing for an IPO “may be setting a new low for self-indulgent IPOs.” Once valued at $2-billion, this unicorn is “deeply in the red and burning through cash so fast that if it can’t stage its IPO by August or borrow millions, it will have to shrink drastically—conceivably, reading between the lines, to nothing.” But the “most disturbing aspect of the IPO filing” is the voting rights associated with the new shares. Before the IPO, the founder “has 91.7% of the votes. The IPO won’t change that materially.” This “points to a persistent flaw in Silicon Valley financing: the willingness to give start-up founders unassailable control of their companies, to the point that investors have no recourse if things go blooey.”
Tags: Control, Disturbing, Domo, Flaw, Founders, Hype, Investors, IPO, Plunder, Self indulgent, Silicon Valley, Unicorn, Voting rights
Chicago Tribune (March 3)
“The idea behind European unity is that countries bound together are likelier to create wealth than to start wars…. Being part of the EU isn’t about losing control, it’s about ensuring stature. We hope our cousins choose to Bremain.”
Wall Street Journal (June 13)
“The magnitude of the debacle now unfolding in Iraq is becoming clearer by the day.” The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has seized control of Mosul and Tikrit, and is “marching ever closer to Baghdad….An extended civil war seems to be the best near-term possibility.”
New York Times (June 10)
Will the recent attack on the Karachi airport “be the crisis that finally persuades Pakistan’s government and its powerful military to acknowledge the Taliban’s pernicious threat and confront it in a comprehensive way? It should be…. Security is crumbling and the military, the country’s strongest institution, is in danger of losing control.”
Tags: Airport, Attack, Confront, Control, Crisis, Government, Karachi, Pakistan, Security, Taliban, Threat
