RE: [DL] Selling Out

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-deadlands@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-deadlands@gamerz.net]On
> Behalf Of richard a ranallo
> Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2001 4:47 PM
> To: deadlands@gamerz.net
> Subject: Re: [DL] Selling Out
>
>
> On Sat, 6 Jan 2001 10:09:58 -0500 "Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>
> writes:
> > I know how that feels, as my partners and I are currently
> > trying to sell a chunk of our company for working capital.  I also know
> that
> > those with money only give up the money in exchange for something -
> > control.
>
> This isn't entirely true.  In business, the people with money often give
> it up for something other than control--more money.  This is what stock
> investors do on a daily basis.  They buy a piece of a company in order to
> share in that company's profitability.  Technically, that share of stock
> gives them some small voice in the company, but most shareholders know to
> leave the decisions to the experienced people, and don't bother to vote
> in shareholders' meetings.
>

Depends on how much money you need, or how big a chunk of the company you
sell.  Yeah, in the end the buyers want more money, no matter how many
shares they pay for.  But in exchange for a large investment (we're looking
at venture capital, in the millions of $, for a large percentage of our
company; and Cybergames "bought" PEG, not just a few shares), the investors
want control -- seats on the board of directors, control of the books,
control of the day-to-day activities.  PEG is now just Shane, so I would
imagine Cybergames _has_ to have a lot of control (and I hope they do it
right) just to keep Shane's heart from exploding from the stress!  My
company won't have to give up much daily control due to the nature of
venture capital investment in my industry, but overall corporate direction
will to a great extent be dictated by the investors via their board seat(s).
I'm sure Shane put as much time into picking business partners as we did,
and lost just as much sleep hoping he picked the right people to hand over a
bunch of his beloved company to, as me and my partners/friends did.

This is going way off topic, and I honestly am just a software engineer and
not too versed in the intricacies of this stuff.  Heck, I was very happy
when we (the founders of my company) hired a boss to direct us.  We're just
a bunch of techies ;-)  I'd be happy to continue the discussion directly,
but I've just about shown my hand in this post.  Now, if you want to discuss
how to create Enterprise Business Integration Application Systems using
leading technologies in innovative ways...  Jeesh, I sound like the
marketing guy...

Jeff "Geek" Y.