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0 pointsMichaelApproved6y ago0 comments

> None of those companies have earned a single dollar for shareholders.

Is that what shareholders are asking for, right now? Don’t they want fast growth more than they want profits?

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4 comments · 1 top-level

H8crilA6y ago· 3 in thread

I suppose, yes, and this is a little scary - the world being in such a state that you can wait 10 years for a company to make profits and it is still considered OK. Cheapening money.

But also how much longer can we wait? Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook were all turning profit before the IPO! Find the old S-1s if you don't believe me. And back in those days IPOs happened much much earlier.

MichaelApprovedOP6y ago

I think Amazon is one of the rare examples where it paid off. They were making losses in exchange for extreme growth in many sectors.

anongraddebt6y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Amazon was strongly cash flow positive as of 2002. Moreover, their operations were throwing off cash the year they went public (1997).

Everyone should be considering this a bit more because it says something about the irrationality of the current market. Large VC funds were investing under the thesis that some of the current crop of (now) less than impressive unicorns could follow the Amazon model: invest in growth at the expense of net income. These unicorns haven't simply failed to produce positive net income by intentionally following the Amazon model, rather they've simply burned through mountains of cash following less than impressive business models. They never followed the Amazon model to begin with.

kmonsen6y ago

Amazon made very controlled losses, and it was clear the core business was good and they were investing in new ideas. Sort of like alphabet except much bigger.

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