Thanks for posting this, KLP. Quite an interesting read.
I still remain of the opinion that had INSP never acquired GNET, GNET surely would've lost value along with the rest, but would've survived and not have been creamed as bad as INSP and the rest.
Our culture at GNET was quite different. We weren't wild-eyed fanatics. We were hard-working mules who took great pride in seeing the results of our labors reflected in the quarterly earnings reports.
Of course, my opinion can be a bit biased. As we know, I was laid off by INSP. I was a very respected fixture at GNET. They even had a copy of the WSJ article about me (complete with picture) in their lobby.
At GNET, I was a "potential millionaire" thanks to stock options. When INSP acquired GNET and laid me off with a bunch of other folks, the potential evaporated. And since my options vested annually rather than quarterly like the INSP folks, I didn't share their opportunity to cash them in. In fact, at one point, INSP issued stock options to nearly everyone in the company *but me*. Why? Because I was pretty much the only person at the company whose options weren't underwater. In a fashion, I was punished for being one of the company's oldest employees. Maybe not so much punished as omitted from company-wide reward, solely on the basis that the length of my tenure at the company (meaning my strike price was set before GNET was a twinkle in many eyes) meant I was one of very few (the only person I knew of) who'd been around long enough to have unvested options with a strike price lower than the then-current market price.
Of course, the fact that I wasn't given new options with the rest of the company became moot when I was laid off and all unvested options cancelled.
I have no qualms with the company now known as InfoSpace. I think it's a good company that's honest and focused.
Naveen and company? If you'll pardon the crude colloquialism, paraphrased, if Aunt Jain were in flames in my front yard after I'd finished off a six-pack without heeding nature's call, I'd continue to ignore that call. Or at least not heed it in his general direction.
Very gratifying to read those articles. Along the lines of the gratification I felt in Seattle, having signed the paperwork to acquire Silicon Investor, standing outside having a post-commitment smoke and seeing Jain's pic on the front page of the Seattle Times talking about his losing a $240-some million lawsuit INSP had filed against him. Still have that newspaper, though I have yet to frame it and put it on the wall. |
