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A comment on Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition? by KingMob on Wednesday March 08, 2017 @03:52PM (#13823662)
Focus on value, not cost. Sure, 3 bil is too much if all you want is Jet.com as is. But 3 bil might be just fine if what you want is a team to help you catch up online and compete with Amazon.
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Re:Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition? by MegaButts on Wednesday March 08, 2017 @10:17PM (#13826634)
$3 billion to acquire a team that has not proven an ability to generate a profit? That's what boggles my mind. It's still a risk, but it's valued like a sure thing.
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Re:Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition? by webmaven on Wednesday March 08, 2017 @11:48PM (#13827061)
> a team that has not proven an ability to generate a profit

There is more than one flavor of unprofitability. On one end, you have Pets.com-style "selling stuff for less than it costs to stock and ship", and on the other end you have Amazon-style "every penny of profit and funding goes into expanding infrastructure ahead of projected demand and leveraging current infrastructure to enter new markets."

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