Comment by pclmulqdq
7 days ago
Because you have a good income stream but you want more money now? Arduino is a lifestyle business (a good lifestyle, don't get me wrong) much more than a growth business. It's easy to price what the income stream is worth.
I don't know if you realise it or not but the point you're making is self-contradictory. If they make great margins, that's why qualcomm would want to buy them, but not why they'd want to sell and have to share it. I guess it makes sense if you're saying arduino are suckers
They did say:
> you want more money now
But honestly, on HN, no one should have to explain why founders seek exits.
Just like any other founder, if the vast majority of their net worth is tied up in the company, they'd like to have an exit to take some chips off the table and diversify their investments.
They're not suckers, they're just getting older and want to retire (as far as I can tell, this may actually be their motivation), so $10 million today sounds a lot better than $1 million every year for the next 15 years.
It’s unlikely that Qualcomm purchased them for their revenue or margins, which to Qualcomm’s scale are basically irrelevant.
So it sounds like again, this purchase makes no sense from anyone's perspective unless arduino are suckers.
2 replies →