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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I want to do business against you. :P

> 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.

> 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

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.

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

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.

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

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 ;-)

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

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...

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.

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."

$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.