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A comment on Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on a $8.75B valuation. Parent comment

Re:Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on... by ethbr1 on Monday April 14, 2025 @08:56PM (#43687955)
> it’s a regular occurrence for Intel to announce a bold new venture to try to claim some new territory, and just as regular that they announce they’re halting that venture in the name of “consolidating” and “focusing on their core.” [...] [Intel's new thing's] expected lifespan is shorter than the average Google product.

You got there in the end. You get the same outcome with the same corporate incentive.

Both Intel and Google prioritize {starting something new} over {growing an existing thing}, in terms of corporate promotions and rewards, and therefore employees and leaders self-optimize to produce the repeated behavior you see.

The way to fix this would be to decrease the rewards for starting a new thing and increase the rewards for evolving and growing an existing line of business.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on... by throwaway2037 on Monday April 14, 2025 @11:41PM (#43688784) 

    > Both Intel and Google prioritize {starting something new} over {growing an existing thing}, in terms of corporate promotions and rewards, and therefore employees and leaders self-optimize to produce the repeated behavior you see.
I cannot speak for Intel, but Google has done very well by "growing an existing thing" in AdWords and YouTube. Both account for the lion's share of profits. They are absolute revenue giants. Many have tried, and failed to chip away at that lead, but Google has managed to adapt over and over again.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on... by 4gotunameagain on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @01:52AM (#43689384)
It is the only two things that google has regularly maintained, one of which with one of the biggest moats (youtube, the to go video service), and the other connected to the homepage of the internet.

It's really hard to fuck these things up. Which they have been trying hard, given the state of youtube and the search engine.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on... by blitzar on Tuesday April 15, 2025 @02:35AM (#43689644)
rewards for not fucking up an existing (monopoly) line of business

I can see why you have to be "special" to work at these places.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Intel sells 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm on... by dylan604 on Monday April 14, 2025 @10:42PM (#43688523)
It's similar to sales vs dev in software. Sales are always prioritizing new features to attract new users instead of fixing the known issues that are pissing off your current users.

New feature attracts new users and allows for fancy press releases. Nobody cares about press releases about an existing product getting a bug fix are become more stable.

Our society is nothing but "ooh look, shiny!" type of short attention span

[ Parent | on HN ]