Xbox Is Not Your Friend
Xbox Is Not Your Friend
After laying off almost 2,000 people, Xbox finds itself in a position at odds with the community-first image it has cultivated for itself.
After laying off almost 2,000 people, Xbox finds itself in a position at odds with the community-first image it has cultivated for itself.
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Yeah no shit. I don't even need to click this link to agree.
MS is a $3tn company and has one of the worst track records on earth for anti-competitive practices.
Shit, in the Xbox FTC leaks, Phil Spencer was openly saying he didn't just want Bethesda and Activision, his dream is to do hostile takeovers of Nintendo and Valve.
And yet I still see people online acting like they're on our side. Utterly laughable.
Why would you ever think any company is "on your side"? They're on their own side. If they make products you like and operate in a way you like, I recommend supporting them, but that still doesn't mean they're "on your side."
Promote products, not companies. A company can change overnight, whereas a product that you own won't.
Why would you ever think any company is “on your side”?
ABK employees, apparently. See this from almost exactly one year ago: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/01/activision-blizzard-employees-react-to-xbox-acquisition/
Idk, that doesn't mean MS is "on their side," just not as bad as Activision Blizzard.
just not as bad as Activision Blizzard.
2000 people may disagree.
Are you sure? Would those 2000 people apply at Activision Blizzard if MS hadn't bought them? If they had the same offer in hand to work at Xbox vs Activision Blizzard, which would they choose?
I'm guessing they still prefer Xbox, though they're probably not happy about being laid-off.
Are you sure?
No. That's why I used the word "may". Look it up.
He won't buy Nintendo nor Valve anytime soon. Valve is pushing Linux distro for a reason.
Valve is a private company. How do you do a hostile takeover of a private company? what a clown.
Phil : Sell us Valve Now!
Gabe : No
Phil : ...
To paint picture Gabe is sitting on a hord of gold like a dragon and says No very quietly.
How do you do a hostile takeover of a private company?
The Mafia does that all the time. Not sure Microsoft would risk that, but there's an option.
Also, if Gabe doesn't have 51% of the shares, Microsoft could buy those shares from the other shareholders just like with a publicly traded company, it's just more difficult because there isn't an open market for it. If Microsoft gets a 51% stake, they legally own the company at that point.
Valve doesn't have stock. That's what "private" means.
All s-corp and c-corp corporations have stock. Valve is almost certainly an s-corp, because managing an LLC with that many employees just doesn't make sense, he'd want the structure of an s-corp. Watch The difference between a private and public corporation isn't whether they have shares, it's whether those shares are traded on public stock markets. Microsoft wouldn't be able to buy shares through a brokerage, they'd need to approach the share holders individually and make an offer to buy out their stake.
That's one reason why working for shares at a startup is so risky, it's really hard to sell private shares. If the company does an IPO (Initial Public Offering of shares, as in they're making some of the private shares available for public purchase), then you can cash out big, but until then, you have mostly worthless stock. Most of the shares are either retained by the owner, or by investing groups.
Watch Shark Tank sometime, when they say X% ownership in the company, they mean share ownership. The sharks want to get the company to be bought out or go public so they can cash out, otherwise they'd probably prefer a percentage of net income.
yeah I see your point but at that point it's not hostile since I'm pretty sure that Valve has 51% between board members based on their culture and hierarchy.
The definition of "hostile takeover" is getting 51% w/o a formal agreement. So if MS approached everyone independently and got 51%, it's a hostile takeover. And they don't need 51% control through their own entity, they can pay independent people to do so.
I think that's unlikely to happen, but it's possible.