Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft

Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by _delirium on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:22AM (#8318626)

It feels pretty reasonable to me, unless you think that it's a flash-in-a-pan that will decline fairly soon. If you think it's a franchise brand that will either hold steady or grow, then it's not really a huge purchase price. Mojang has profits of somewhere around $100-150m on revenues of $300-400m, so this values them at 15-25x profits, or 6-9x revenues, both of which are lower than most recent major tech purchases (e.g. Google paid something like 10-12x revenues for Nest). Heck, a 15-25 P/E ratio isn't even out-of-line for an established tech company without huge growth expectations (Intel and Microsoft both trade around 20).

The terms seem pretty generous, though, a completely clean buyout with no requirement that the principals stay for even a little bit.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by keithg on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:58AM (#8318882)

All I know is that every one of my kids' friends knows about and plays Minecraft regularly. Even girls pay, though not as many. Among elementary school age kids, it's as close to universally accepted/known as you can get. We went on vacation to the beach, and my sons made friends with a boy, and they immediately started talking about Minecraft. The next thing, they are playing on the same server with each other, etc. Same with new friends in other activities like soccer.

Now we're starting to talk about mods or being able to write mods for Minecraft some day. As this young, enthusiastic population of users grows up, they will have a lot of buying power and interest in things like the customizations and programming aspects of the game.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by UnfalseDesign on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:12AM (#8318979)

I have 3 daughters, all grade-school age, and they play Minecraft more than I do. We talk about it over dinner and watch YouTube videos about how to build things. I've also seen them make quick friends by talking about it. My daughters have even come to know some server terminology (mostly from hearing me say it while getting their games to work).

It is also a thrill for me, as a parent, to be able to see their young imaginations manifest in a 3D space which I can explore and interact with.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by malkia on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:05AM (#8318933)

Same here, our kid hasn't touch other games in a long time (first grader).

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by petercooper on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:34AM (#8318706)

Agreed. Warner Bros is already talking about a potential movie franchise for Minecraft. Merchandising seems to be going crazy too, I can't seem to turn around without seeing Minecraft posters, dolls, toys, etc. It probably has more long term financial potential than Harry Potter, even ignoring the core piece of software, and Azure could be an excellent fit with the move into providing and leasing servers to players that Minecraft has been dabbling with.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by fixedd on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:54AM (#8319238)

> Merchandising seems to be going crazy too

They're missing a huge market... children's birthday party crap.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by steveklabnik on Monday September 15, 2014 @11:06AM (#8319325)

I wouldn't be so sure they're missing it, exactly https://www.google.com/search?q=minecraft+birthday+party&saf...

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by brlewis on Monday September 15, 2014 @11:57AM (#8319588)

Friends had to pull together party gear from lots of independent sources for that birthday theme. I wonder if Microsoft will be unable to build a merchandising empire thanks to the trademark not being defended enough.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by fixedd on Friday September 26, 2014 @06:05PM (#8375154)

Most of what you're seeing there is hand-made.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jacquesm on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:24AM (#8318644)

Is it a cash deal or a stock deal or both? The release mentions 'dollars' which makes it seem this is an all cash deal. That would be quite something, but since there is no lock-up for the founders it makes good sense that it would be just a cash deal.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by Mikeb85 on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:47AM (#8318810)

It would be a great way to get rid of some Euros that MS has but doesn't want to pay US tax on...

Stock wouldn't be bad though.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jychang on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:31AM (#8318690)

For Microsoft stock?

I think it doesn't matter that much. Microsoft stock is notoriously stable for tech stocks, so the difference between an all cash deal and an all stock deal wouldn't be too big after, say, a year or something.

Notch also probably wasn't too pressured to make the sale, so the terms would be understandably in his favor.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jacquesm on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:37AM (#8318723)

I think it would matter a great deal.

If an opportunity to re-invest came along in that window then you'd miss out, microsoft stock is relatively stable but has seen both 'up', 'down' and 'neutral' years where up and down were on the order of 20 to 30%.

On top of that, cash is king, simply put: there is absolutely no uncertainty at all.

Given the option between x in cash and x in stock or a mix or stock and cash you should always go for the cash.

And something a bit less than x is probably still preferable in cash.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by dannypgh on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:30AM (#8319081)

Yes, heaven forbid the 2.5B drops down to 1.75B. They'll have to move to the poor house, for sure.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jacquesm on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:47AM (#8319187)

Let me give you a hint: if you ever are in the position to do a major exit get yourself a tax lawyer. Or you indeed might find yourself in the poorhouse after all.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by isaacremuant on Monday September 15, 2014 @11:46AM (#8319537)

so you consider a 30 % difference negligible because you can avoid living in a poor house?

I want to do business against you. :P

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by logn on Tuesday September 16, 2014 @06:01AM (#8323741)

> cash is king [...] there is absolutely no uncertainty at all

2009 was only 5 years ago. Money markets nearly crashed, banks went bankrupt, the Fed printed enormous amounts of money, and BTC was invented. With $2.5 billion on the table, I'd first hire a team of lawyers and accountants, and maybe some lobbyists too... then I'd let MS know how I want to receive the rest of the money.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by Mikeb85 on Monday September 15, 2014 @01:41PM (#8320185)

> On top of that, cash is king, simply put: there is absolutely no uncertainty at all.

Because currency values don't fluctuate at all...

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=EURUSD=X

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jacquesm on Monday September 15, 2014 @04:40PM (#8321382)

I'm pretty sure that if it is a cash deal that he will convert to Euros to get rid of the $ exchange rate risk. If the deal contains a stock component that's a double risk.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by seanmcdirmid on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:58AM (#8318880)

You should always go for cash, unless you are worried about an allay once tax hit.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by petercooper on Monday September 15, 2014 @09:30AM (#8318678)

It wouldn't surprise me though given notch hasn't had a compelling reason to sell so far (no investors, lives a modest lifestyle, it's still minting money like crazy). This appears to be a "too good a deal to turn down" sale, so he probably called all the shots to make it stick.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by wingerlang on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:03AM (#8318923)

> lives a modest lifestyle Didn't he just buy /the/ most expensive apartment in Stockholm?

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by petercooper on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:09AM (#8318957)

Well, for a centimillionaire. Spending less than 2% of his then net worth (more like 0.2% now though) on his main property was relatively modest. No jets, cars, helicopters, $200m+ London homes.. he seems to spend more time noodling with Dart than spending his money ;-)

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by sib on Monday September 15, 2014 @11:00AM (#8319279)

Not important, but you probably mean "hectomillionaire" - a centimillionaire would be someone worth $10,000.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by adventured on Monday September 15, 2014 @02:41PM (#8320584)

No, he meant centimillionaire / centi-millionaire. It's a common term referring to a nine figure net worth.

Centi can designate 100 of something or one-hundredth of something.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/centi-

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centimillionaire

http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/11/12/breaking-d...

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by samatman on Monday September 15, 2014 @12:12PM (#8319703)

I would accept 'centillionaire', because 'centillion' strikes me as a decent way to say one hundred million. A centurion is not 1/100th of an urion.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by kaoD on Monday September 15, 2014 @12:38PM (#8319828)

Apparently 'centillionaire' is already taken http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centillion

"One centillion is a number, which is equal to either 10^303 or 10^600, depending on the system used."

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by jacquesm on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:09AM (#8318953)

$3.9M or thereabouts. I suspect that it is threads like these that will make Markus more than happy to fade out of the spotlight.

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Re:Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft by joshdance on Monday September 15, 2014 @10:28AM (#8319074)

"no requirement that the principals stay for even a little bit"

Principles were already gone. Notch never really worked on the game anymore. He stayed around because they wanted him to.

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