It does honestly bug me that LivingSocial's CEO is lying or at least misleading employees and public about several very important facts, and is coming up with more only when forced to do so by privco questions or the press.
First, it bothers me that in this initial memo announcing the funding he said nothing but how terrific it is that their investors love LivingSocial's financial performance SO much that they doubled down with more money. NO mention that they were down to their last month of cash left. NO mention that they had to give up the farm to get the money. NO naming (as is the custom) of the investors who invested (i.e. hiding that some did not...usually ALL prior investors put in at least a nominal amount and a new lead investor "leads the round). Here it was very bizarre the investors weren't named.
And he doesn't say anything about this NOT just being a standard straight VC stock round, but only when pushed by PrivCo he coughs up yea ok the securities do "have some bells and whistles" that makes the employees' stock worth less. No mention of that on Wed. announcement (before privco forced the issue). Then he has the balls to suggest that don't worry if we IPO all of this won't matter. He the the guys KNOWS they'll never IPO.
So call me old fashiond but that just bugs me. And hats off to PrivCo or any other media/research firm that calls companies out (esp private ones you can't even short sell...they took all their time prepping their research and went out ona limn for what? Bunch of blog posts criticizing em b/c CEO who has no more credibility IMO just says so, and he's the son in law of the CEO of the Washington Post, so he can say whatever the f'k he wants and we're all just supposed to take it all at face value.
Obv PrivCo made every effort to get the facts right - they just even outed the sr. exec at Living Social to prove they didn't make up quotes: http://www.privco.com/livingsocial-receives-emergency-110m-c... (at the bottom) - nobody even the NYTImes bats 1,000, but this LIvingSocial CEO's arrogant dishonesty to those 4,000 employees while he cuts a side deal i'm sure so he gets some millions no matter how badly it tanks....well I just don't like it and I don't trust him one bit. It's drip drip drip with this guy. Spit it out: we basically borrowed money, we were almost out of cash, we call it equity but it has interest, loan's due in 4 yrs, we call it a "VC round" but look we had to do it. Now we need a new strategy and streamline.
First, it bothers me that in this initial memo announcing the funding he said nothing but how terrific it is that their investors love LivingSocial's financial performance SO much that they doubled down with more money. NO mention that they were down to their last month of cash left. NO mention that they had to give up the farm to get the money. NO naming (as is the custom) of the investors who invested (i.e. hiding that some did not...usually ALL prior investors put in at least a nominal amount and a new lead investor "leads the round). Here it was very bizarre the investors weren't named.
And he doesn't say anything about this NOT just being a standard straight VC stock round, but only when pushed by PrivCo he coughs up yea ok the securities do "have some bells and whistles" that makes the employees' stock worth less. No mention of that on Wed. announcement (before privco forced the issue). Then he has the balls to suggest that don't worry if we IPO all of this won't matter. He the the guys KNOWS they'll never IPO.
So call me old fashiond but that just bugs me. And hats off to PrivCo or any other media/research firm that calls companies out (esp private ones you can't even short sell...they took all their time prepping their research and went out ona limn for what? Bunch of blog posts criticizing em b/c CEO who has no more credibility IMO just says so, and he's the son in law of the CEO of the Washington Post, so he can say whatever the f'k he wants and we're all just supposed to take it all at face value.
Obv PrivCo made every effort to get the facts right - they just even outed the sr. exec at Living Social to prove they didn't make up quotes: http://www.privco.com/livingsocial-receives-emergency-110m-c... (at the bottom) - nobody even the NYTImes bats 1,000, but this LIvingSocial CEO's arrogant dishonesty to those 4,000 employees while he cuts a side deal i'm sure so he gets some millions no matter how badly it tanks....well I just don't like it and I don't trust him one bit. It's drip drip drip with this guy. Spit it out: we basically borrowed money, we were almost out of cash, we call it equity but it has interest, loan's due in 4 yrs, we call it a "VC round" but look we had to do it. Now we need a new strategy and streamline.