Slashdot Mirror
The Real Reason Palmer Luckey Was Fired From Facebook (zdnet.com)
ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols argues that the founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, wasn't fired because of his political views, as a recently-published Wall Street Journal article suggests, but because the virtual-reality company lost a $500 million intellectual property theft case to game maker ZeniMax. An anonymous reader shares the report: According to The Wall Street Journal, Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, a virtual reality company, was fired by Facebook because "he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group" during the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign. But the article fails to mention a simple little fact: On Feb. 1, 2017, Oculus lost an intellectual property (IP) theft case against game maker ZeniMax, to the tune of $500 million. So, if one of your employees just cost your company a cool half-billion bucks for doing wrong what would you do? Well, Facebook isn't saying, even now, but on March 30, 2017, it let Luckey go.
Yes, Luckey also lied about his political moves, which went well beyond donating to an anti-Hillary billboard campaign. But let's look at the record. Everyone knew he'd lied by Feb. 22, 2016. Was he fired then? No. Was he fired after being found guilty of stealing ZeniMax's trade secrets? Yes. Officially, Facebook stated: "All details associated with specific personnel matters are kept strictly confidential. This is our policy for all employees, no matter their seniority. But we can say unequivocally that Palmer's departure was not due to his political views." Let me spell it out for you: He made some political waves. Nothing happened. He cost Facebook $500 million. He was fired. Can anyone here seriously not draw the lines between the dots?
Yes, Luckey also lied about his political moves, which went well beyond donating to an anti-Hillary billboard campaign. But let's look at the record. Everyone knew he'd lied by Feb. 22, 2016. Was he fired then? No. Was he fired after being found guilty of stealing ZeniMax's trade secrets? Yes. Officially, Facebook stated: "All details associated with specific personnel matters are kept strictly confidential. This is our policy for all employees, no matter their seniority. But we can say unequivocally that Palmer's departure was not due to his political views." Let me spell it out for you: He made some political waves. Nothing happened. He cost Facebook $500 million. He was fired. Can anyone here seriously not draw the lines between the dots?
The author of the article seems very intent on the readers taking his speculation as truth. I wonder why he cares so much.
Execs lose billions of dollars and there are no repercussions. For example: Microsoft bought github for $7.5 billion. Eventually that will be marked down as a "writedown" for $7 billion, because Github isn't worth nearly what Microsoft paid for it. Essentially the executives wasted $7.5 billion. So, losing a $500 million court case is nothing. GE just did a writedown of $23 billion. There are no ramifications for the executives, but the stockholders get the shaft.
Also, as any freshman business major can tell you, sunk costs should be ignored. You don't fire people because they lost money in the past, you fire them because you think they are going to lose money in the future.
My experience is that the most common reason people are fired is incompetence. The 2nd most common is being on the losing end of internal office politics. As you move up the hierarchy from janitor to CEO the first reason diminishes and the 2nd increases.
Costing the company half a billion dollars might be seen as incompetence in some circles.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Carmack is an important software developer who knows how the system works. Luckey isn't. He's an entrepreneur, not an engineer.
Additionally Facebook has pro-Trump people on its board, including Peter Thiel, who gave far more to the Trump campaign than Luckey, so the argument that Facebook fired anyone for supporting Trump is plain ludicrous on the face of it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
According to the court case decision Carmack wasn't head liable for any wrongdoing.
The jury trial completed on February 2, 2017, with the jury finding that Luckey had violated the NDA he had with ZeniMax, and awarding $500 million to ZeniMax.[15][16] However, the jury found that Oculus, Facebook, Luckey, Iribe, and Carmack did not misappropriate or steal trade secrets,[15][16][17] though ZeniMax continued to publicly assert otherwise
Also, as any freshman business major can tell you, sunk costs should be ignored. You don't fire people because they lost money in the past, you fire them because you think they are going to lose money in the future.
As anyone who's older than freshmen will tell you that never happens in practice. Businesses do not operate in some sort of platonic drive for profit free from emotion. They're made of people and people get really pissed off if you loose a cool half billion.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Well his presence rather undermines the notion that people get fired for for the political views or that Facebook itself has some kind of corporate level political agenda.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC