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Private Equity Ruins Tech Companies
The Wordpress and open source communities have lots of thoughts on Matt Mullenweg’s actions after his talk at WordCamp. Much of this commentary has overlooked what I think is a core concern at the heart of Matt’s argument: the growing role and influence of private equity in tech, particularly in open source. PE firms raise money from institutional investors and high net worth individuals to buy companies, restructure them, and sell them later for a profit.
Much of this commentary has overlooked what I think is a core concern at the heart of Matt’s argument: the growing role and influence of private equity in tech, particularly in open source. PE firms raise money from institutional investors and high net worth individuals to buy companies, restructure them, and sell them later for a profit. Not everyone can push back against private equity, but I believe we should support companies like Wordpress that have a long history of admirable values and prescient leadership.
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