Slashdot Mirror
Once Valued at $3.2B, Wearable Company Jawbone Shuts Down, CEO Launches New Startup: Report (axios.com)
Consumer hardware company Jawbone is being liquidated, according to The Information. From a report: The San Francisco-based company, which once was valued at $3.2 billion by private investors, has hired Sherwood Partners to handle the wind-down process and assume its ongoing litigation with rival FitBit. Jawbone 2.0: Co-founder and CEO Hosain Rahman reportedly has formed a new company, named Jawbone Health Hub, that has hired many of Jawbone's employees and will take over servicing Jawbone's products. BlackRock, which loaned Jawbone $300 million in 2015, has a stake in the new company. No other existing Jawbone investor has a stake in the new startup, with one telling Axios that his firm has been kept in the dark.
I just invested 5 bucks in Turd, LLC. I deem it to be worth 5.7 billion dollars. Where's my payday?
Someone should make a computer they can wear on their wazoos to track the amount of money blown out of it.
Agreed. Maybe the new investors should talk to the old investors.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
Maybe the new investors should talk to the old investors.
BlackRock is an old investor. They probably stayed in to avoid writing off their previous investment as a loss.
Dammit where are my mod points? That's funny as hell. well done.
Fitbit did this with Pebble. Why shouldn't their competitors get to do it too? Silly Valley is a special place with unicorns and the old rules do not apply there anymore.
We need stories like this to remind investors, and people in general, that unicorns are made up. Especially the kind that come in startup form.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Actually, many entrepreneurs are more successful on subsequent startups (although, I believe it is usually the third or fourth business that they start which succeeds).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
The tech in the headset was fantastic for its time, but the wire ear loops repeatedly snapped off just from putting the unit on your ear. Their response to the raft of complaints was to put out a YouTube instructional video showing how to put a Jawbone on your ear "properly" (i.e., without breaking it), and to only sell replacements in 3-pack of different sizes -- use one, throw the other two away. This doesn't surprise me at all.
Pikachu! I choose Apple's worth on paper!
Someone should make a computer they can wear on their wazoos to track the amount of money blown out of it.
Some VCs are starting to pull out from these unprofitable unicorns.
The revenue stream from the government using it to attach to sexual offenders would bankroll the whole business.
For that, you'd need to talk to WeVibe as I hear they have expertise in that area.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The whole purpose of a corporation is to shield the "owners" from civil litigation as much as possible. As an interesting fictional analogy, I suggest picking up a copy of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. In it, the main characters drop their first startup Epiphyte and create a new one without the pending litigation, called Epiphyte(2).
The per-item value of trinkets and doohikies is rapidly declining, as are the supposed values of some tacky, commercial online/web services and appy app-apps. Protonet just closed shop after being a big crown-funding darling child just 3 years ago. We're seeing the same with Rocket, errrm Rippoff Internet and countless other blowhard startup projects. Jawbone had their jawbone thingie but wanted to extend it beyond it as fast as possible and they failed. People don't seem to realise that it's mostly about big bets and very little substance.
The first jawbone device was a neat idea for the quantitive-self crowd and could've carried on as some special must-have device for the hippster sportive folks, they should've stuck with it and not inflated their brand so much so fast.
The most valuable thing today is peoples time and attention, as the most valuable thing in the cities today aren't cars but parking spaces. It will take some time and a few more crashes before the economy adapts. That's my suspicion anyway.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It is gambling in a way, though... for every 20 startups that you (intelligently and with forethought!) dump $1m into, one of them is fairly guaranteed to get you $25-30m back or more within five years.
Obviously Jawbone could've been one of the moneymakers - if they IPO'd or sold to a bigger company like 3 years ago. :/
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Yeah, but c'mon... sunk cost is sunk cost, I get that, but how much did they pitch in initially to make them throw that much money after it in 2015?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Thanks for the money, now fuck off!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They've been temporarily transferred to Tesla, along with many other imaginary billions; the company that sells less than 1% as many cars as Ford sells, yet is somehow is worth more.
There used to be some good premium Bluetooth headsets. Jawbone led the pack, BlueAnt had a good strong showing, and there were a couple of other also-rans that weren't so bad.
Jawbone is gone, BlueAnt's inventory is drying up and getting dated.
There's all sorts of stuff from China that's super cheap, and some of it isn't too bad, but there's nothing that reaches their reliability and has JawBone/BlueAnt noise cancellation. Motorola stuff has horrible background noise and it's actually painful for me to listen to when someone is using one on the other end. Jabra has gone desktop and never did have the noise cancellation down (but did have the most comfortable headset I ever wore). Plantronics, despite being known for indoor/desktop stuff is sort of stepping up to the plate. Still there's really nothing left that really fills the void being left by Jawbone.
I personally consider talking on the phone an annoyance I can't avoid. I work, drive, and do chores with my hands. I started using headsets back when the only really good option was a Jabra with a wire, I even figured out how to integrate that wire and headset into my clothing so I never had to stop doing what I needed to get done for a phone call. Before that even as a teen I got a headset for my normal wired phone so I could keep doing what I needed to do.
I'm really going to miss Jawbone for headsets. I don't think the fitness band was a bad idea, but the company shifting focus to it probably wasn't the greatest move they made. They should have focused on making cheaper but still high quality headsets, maybe even going binaural so the music people could get their fix. Had Jawbone kept their focus right they could have been the people who beat Apple to the market with their own Airpod.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
But most still subscribe to the "bigger fool" theory and hope to get out and leave someone else hold the bag.
Judges 15:15
And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
That's nothing, this jawbone will slew the millions of dollars of any asses who invest in it.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The UP 3 sounded really interesting when it was announced. I was on a fitness kick at the time, and my girlfriend ordered one for me for Christmas. At the time, Jawbone was saying it would deliver by December 22. December came and went. We called, and Jawbone gave no reason but said deliveries would be delayed, and that it should be shipping soon January came and went. We called again. Same answer. February, March... the device didn't come until April.
When I had finally received it four months later, I found that the UP 3 had tons of problems. The biggest one was bluetooth syncing. It was supposed to constantly be sending data to the phone through bluetooth. But, the bluetooth connection failed multiple times a day. When it would fail, I would have to repair the band.
Also, the initial marketing for the UP 3 was heavy on the heart rate monitoring feature. It seemed based on the advertising that I could use the band to track my heart rate during the workout. But when the band shipped, it would only track resting heart rate while you slept.
Finally, the band just died. Customer service was terrible. Long waits on the phone, to hear them tell me they weren't authorized to send me a replacement. If that wasn't enough, was that in the midst of all of these UP 3 problems, Jawbone announced the UP 4 shipping soon. No discounts for the UP 3 users dealing with all the crap. On top of that, the UP 4 just seemed silly, with the only new addition being that could be used to make American Express (and only American Express) payments.
So I'm not surprised at all to see them fail. And given the track record with this CEO, I would strongly recommend against investing in any of his future projects.
So, this is how unicorns die - VC $$ blown then reincarnated into some other useless product.
Some VCs are starting to pull out from these unprofitable unicorns.
If they pull out early enough they will have an easier time fighting the paternity suits.
hope to get out and leave someone else hold the bag.
You just described the stock market. And the bond market. And the Federal Reserve...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Sales units sold is completely meaningless when valuing a company. I could sell a billion units and you could sell one, and your company will still be more valuable than mine if I'm losing 100 dollars per unit and you're making 10 dollars per unit.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
and again, investors to ceo, if you like your job, do something different.
Hey, if you've got money coming out the wazoo, you should do something with it.
At least according to E-Trade.
When I bought my first Aliph Jawbone headset, I was amazed at the ability of the "noise assassin" to knock down noise. So much so, that I was on the phone during an ice storm, where we had part of our office running on two gasoline generators out in the parking lot. I was on the phone talking to a coworker and turned the noise canceling off and then on and he was amazed that if he didn't know any better, he would never have known the generators were running. Kept with them buying another one that was considerably smaller, but, by the time they came out with "the new era" one, it was a piece of junk. VERY poor battery life, kept disconnecting etc. Sent it back, the replacement didn't work, sent that one back, had poor battery and sound quality. I gave up on them and looked elsewhere. I think they stretched themselves with all the do-dads, speakers, fitness bands, and let their headset part falter. Yeah, a lot of people don't use these, but someone in my line of business NEEDS that type of headset working in a noisy environment and needing both hands free. Hopefully someone will buy/license their noise assassin technology and put it in their headset.
IT was once valued at 3.2B by private investors means that someone bought some percentage of stock at that value. Say, $32M for 1%.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... "Corporation. Noun. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility"
It wasn't money.
Money supply does not include company valuations in M*
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Some VCs are starting to pull out from these unprofitable unicorns.
If they pull out early enough they will have an easier time fighting the paternity suits.
They're pulling out alright, just not the head or the orifice you're thinking of.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Yep! The sad thing is that when all shakes out, it is the 1% that walks away with all the gains while leaving the 99% to eat all the losses. This is the purpose of the IPO. Go public and then trade your VC stake for other people's cash before the business model is known to be shit causing the supposed company value to drop back to zip.
.
Landfill Mining Co.
Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
It had raised more than $580 million in funding from top investors like Khosla Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner Perkins.... and... BlackRock, which loaned Jawbone $300 million in 2015, which has a stake in the new company
Plus 14 rounds of funding.
How is this CEO still trusted with anybody's money if he blew through over half a billion dollars? #SuckerBornEveryMinute
This is how the federal government fucked over bond holders (who have first dibs on the money in BK) when GM was re-organized.
Pull out from these unicorns? That's what she said?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
So Telsa (which lost $4.77 per share last year) should still be worth more than Ford (who made $0.94 per share)? That's what has happened, the stock market has been incredibly slanted away from performance and more towards hype. I kind of like it, it's keeping many companies that pay good dividends (like STB - 7.2% yield right now) low in terms of shares, because they are "slow" and "profitable" rather than hyped up about being "disruptive"...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Huh? I guess if you call losing $330 million last quarter, and $720 million over the last 4 quarters "in the green" - then you are verifiably color blind...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Fiction. There was $27.2 billion in general unsecured debt from general unsecured bondholders who did not have "first dibs" on the money. They were in the same asset class ("seniority") as the United Auto Workers pension fund. It is up to the administrator of the bankruptcy how creditors in the same class are treated. As it happened, the bondholders ended up with a 10% ownership share so they were not left out in the cold.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Apples and oranges. I argued that number of units sold is not a smart way to value a company. That's why people use things like P&L statements and balance sheets. You're coming back to me with earnings per share - which can tell you a lot more about a company that just quantity of units sold. Your statement does not refute mine. And still, using only earnings per share can get you in trouble too.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You realize it's perfectly possible to show a loss on your financials and still be making money, right? Especially when your sinking money into a new factory. That's why you ALSO need to look at the balance sheet.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You realize it's perfectly possible to show a loss on your financials and still be making money, right? Especially when your sinking money into a new factory. That's why you ALSO need to look at the balance sheet.
Not when you follow GAAP. It's highly defined, and you cannot "ignore" capital costs - that's why they are amortized over time. The only way that Tesla is "making money" is when you use non-GAAP accounting and ignore expenses that other car companies do not ignore. You may increase your net worth by "investing" more than you actually make (meaning - you take loans to invest, or in the case of Tesla you sell more shares of stock, getting loans from shareholders), but your income is still negative. Net worth may increase, but income is negative. Flat out, full stop.
Hey, my net income would look a LOT better if I didn't have to actually "recognize" my mortgage payments or my health care insurance premiums! A solid $3K per month change in my stated monthly cash flow! Of course, I can't do that - that's not accepted. Even if most of it is going to build total "net worth", my cash flow still takes that $3K/month hit. Hey, why don't I go get a $50K/month mortgage - well beyond my monthly income - and claim I still have the same income, I'm still cash-flow positive (no loss - profit!) whilst building more net asset value? Can't do that... That's called fraud.
Tesla was slapped by the SEC for it's non-GAAP shenanigans, and now reports GAAP numbers. All of which show Tesla losing money. As is correct. Corporate value - net assets - may be increasing as cash flow is spent on factories, but that does not change the fact: they are spending more money than they are bringing in, they have a negative earnings per share.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Jawbone was once one of the top rated high end Bluetooth headset providers. They didn't adapt and expand as necessary to keep up with the shifting market.
It's not like they didn't try (like Blockbusters) but their attempts were all failures.
RIP... along with Blackberry, Palm, etc.
From Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary
Don't forget Social Security. I have no illusions that the bag will be empty in 30 years when I'm due to start drawing the money that I've been paying in since I was 16.