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Once Valued at $1.8B, OnLive Was Sold For Only $5M

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-the-mighty-have-fallen dept.

gabebear writes with details of what happened to OnLive back in August: "In a firesale, OnLive, which was once valued at $1.8bn, was sold for practically nothing. Workers are mostly losing their jobs and stock options and investors are having to write off their investment." More details.

7 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. OMG! by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OMG you know what this means?! They FINALLY realized that you can't stream 60FPS video streams of 1920x1080 over the internet!

    They may have even discovered that gamers don't tolerate an internet connection level of input delay in their games! And that serious gamers want to own their own gear! And that gamers do other things than games on their computer so they own a faster computer anyway! And that rendering a 1920x1080 video stream locally also takes a fast computer!

    1. Re:OMG! by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      OMG you know what this means?! They FINALLY realized that you can't stream 60FPS video streams of 1920x1080 over the internet!
      They may have even discovered that gamers don't tolerate an internet connection level of input delay in their games! And that serious gamers want to own their own gear! And that gamers do other things than games on their computer so they own a faster computer anyway! And that rendering a 1920x1080 video stream locally also takes a fast computer!

      they didn't realize that yet. they realized that they can transfer the valuable assets for pennies on the dollar to an entity they control while screwing the other investors and employees out of their shares.

      the ceo(and most of the board) were assholes and still are, simple as that.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:OMG! by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wasn't the alternative bankruptcy? Did they purposely sabotage the company? Didn't they lose the invested money too? Then why is it paying something being an asshole?

      Well, what happened was pretty scummy. After all, what happened was all of a sudden, an unconfirmed rumor popped up that OnLive was bankrupt. The official company line though was everything was fine. Then two weeks later everyone got the news that OnLive was taken over by OnLIve.

      Effectively, the investors in the original OnLive could've gotten out (but instead lost it all), while the CEO and management, and half of the engineers got "transferred" to the new company and the rest were pretty much shown the door.

      The execs losing their investment? Most likely not - it pwas probably written in that they got 100 cents on the dollar for their investments by the new OnLive. Everyone else, got screwed as usualy.

      Hell, even the employees with no jobs were basically kicked out without severance, or the option to plead their case in bankruptcy court. The company effectively went bankrupt, fired everyone, got "bought out", management re-hired, and half the fired engineers re-hired.

      It's basically a way to downsize without paying benefits and screwing over investors, while management walks away with nothing's changed. Probably a very creative loophole in the law.

  2. Valuation by Lieutenant_Dan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I once valued my microwave at $1,100,000 but ended selling it for $20 on Craigslist. There was disappointment all around.

    As well, I once had an idea for a jetpack that I valued at $20 billion AUS dollars ("billion" with a "b"). Unfortunately I sold that idea for a pint of Fosters to work colleague.

    --
    Wearing pants should always be optional.
  3. Re:Network conectivity by firex726 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, but their whole basis was that they were streaming it from the Cloud.

    Why if I have a 20gb BW cap would I stream HD content when I could go buy the game on DVD and play it locally?

  4. Are people acutally surprised? by Githaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With Onlive's ridiculous pricing, are people actually surprised? The last time I took a look at Onlive they were "selling" games at about the same price as retail. Why would I want to pay retail price for something I am essentially renting from a new and untested company while having no recourse when they go under?

  5. Re:No surprise to us: Thats the real story by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is necessary if starvation and homelessness threaten to break down public order.

    This has happened many times in the history of human civilization. Don't pretend it can't just because your head is full of naive libertarian ideas about how you wish the world worked.

    Whenever the shit really hits the fan, libertarians disappear into the cracks like scattering cockroaches.