<story><title>Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skeeter2020</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been a part of a couple of these. This statement is somewhere on the spectrum of absolutely naive to willfully disingenuous.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Someone just paid 2 billion dollars to buy us, but they&amp;#x27;re not going to change anything, exert any influence or expect payback beyond what we&amp;#x27;ve already been doing.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>sillysaurusx</author><text>I dunno. Reddit seems like an example of a successful acquisition. Conde Nast managed not to destroy Reddit after buying it.&lt;p&gt;But I agree with you overall. I&amp;#x27;m a bit nervous too. Stack Overflow is so good, and its fate is now entirely in the hands of the purchaser.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: In the other announcement post (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;kinda-a-big-announcement&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;kinda-a-big-announ...&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Today we’re pleased to announce that Stack Overflow is joining Prosus. Prosus is an investment and holding company, which means that the most important part of this announcement is that Stack Overflow will continue to operate independently, with the exact same team in place that has been operating it, according to the exact same plan and the exact same business practices. Don’t expect to see major changes or awkward “synergies”. The business of Stack Overflow will continue to focus on Reach and Relevance, and Stack Overflow for Teams. The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wonder how true this will be over time.</text></item><item><author>ddingus</author><text>While I&amp;#x27;m happy for the people who made a lot of money in this transaction, I always read these announcements with a bit of angst.&lt;p&gt;From a user point of view, I expect this to go like Reddit has, for example.  Everyone building that value saw high use value, returns on their investment in the form of information they need, lean, easy to find, high signal to noise.&lt;p&gt;Now there is a debt to be paid.  The new owner needs to extract the purchase price, and whatever additional additional returns they intend.  Everything costs something.&lt;p&gt;So what will it be?&lt;p&gt;Subscription access?&lt;p&gt;Less favorable signal to noise?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xenadu02</author><text>While somewhat rare there are holding companies like Jonas Software that buy lots of smaller software companies in various markets then effectively let each subsidiary run without too much interference. Their philosophy seems to be own most or all of the competitors in a vertical market, sell the software for a reasonable (read: non-Oracle) price with ongoing maintenance, and collect the cash. I only know about them because a relative was Director of Engineering at the time they were acquired and is now CEO.&lt;p&gt;They don&amp;#x27;t expect any massive changes in revenue with the companies they acquire. They&amp;#x27;re willing to hire and invest in revamping&amp;#x2F;improving their products. Their goal is stable revenue by making customers happy enough to keep paying the maintenance.&lt;p&gt;They seem to be doing OK with that business model.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skeeter2020</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been a part of a couple of these. This statement is somewhere on the spectrum of absolutely naive to willfully disingenuous.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Someone just paid 2 billion dollars to buy us, but they&amp;#x27;re not going to change anything, exert any influence or expect payback beyond what we&amp;#x27;ve already been doing.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>sillysaurusx</author><text>I dunno. Reddit seems like an example of a successful acquisition. Conde Nast managed not to destroy Reddit after buying it.&lt;p&gt;But I agree with you overall. I&amp;#x27;m a bit nervous too. Stack Overflow is so good, and its fate is now entirely in the hands of the purchaser.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: In the other announcement post (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;kinda-a-big-announcement&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.joelonsoftware.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;kinda-a-big-announ...&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Today we’re pleased to announce that Stack Overflow is joining Prosus. Prosus is an investment and holding company, which means that the most important part of this announcement is that Stack Overflow will continue to operate independently, with the exact same team in place that has been operating it, according to the exact same plan and the exact same business practices. Don’t expect to see major changes or awkward “synergies”. The business of Stack Overflow will continue to focus on Reach and Relevance, and Stack Overflow for Teams. The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wonder how true this will be over time.</text></item><item><author>ddingus</author><text>While I&amp;#x27;m happy for the people who made a lot of money in this transaction, I always read these announcements with a bit of angst.&lt;p&gt;From a user point of view, I expect this to go like Reddit has, for example.  Everyone building that value saw high use value, returns on their investment in the form of information they need, lean, easy to find, high signal to noise.&lt;p&gt;Now there is a debt to be paid.  The new owner needs to extract the purchase price, and whatever additional additional returns they intend.  Everything costs something.&lt;p&gt;So what will it be?&lt;p&gt;Subscription access?&lt;p&gt;Less favorable signal to noise?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spurgu</author><text>Naive indeed. I flew to meet a company we had just acquired and I personally promised them that nothing would change. Even though I believed it at the time of course it didn&amp;#x27;t pan out that way and to this day I regret saying that.</text></comment>