Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Top-level
Cory Doctorow

The reality is that PE goons - like other financiers - are basically herding animals. *Everyone's* hit on the tactic of buying up beloved media companies - from the 150-year-old *Popular Science* to modern publications like CNet - and then filling them with spammy garbage in the hopes that Google will fail to notice and continue to award them pride-of-place on search results pages:

pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-

17/

4 comments
Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

The fact that these billionaire brain-geniuses can't figure out how to "turn around" a site whose workers a) produce brilliant, popular, successful work; and b) depart to found successful firms that commercialize that work tells you everything about their ability to spot "a good business opportunity."

18/

Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

PE - like other mafiosi - only have one business-plan, the "bust out," where you invade a business that produces useful things, force them to pay your chosen suppliers sky-high fees for things they don't need, extract massive fees for your "management" and then walk away from the collapse:

pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plu

19/

Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

I'm on tour with my new novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me TONIGHT in LA with @adamconover at Vroman's, then on MONDAY in SEATTLE with Neal Stephenson (Feb 26, Third Place Books). After that, it's Portland, Phoenix, Tucson, Anaheim and more!

pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/nar

eof/

Nicole Parsons replied to Cory

@pluralistic

Parasites infect both healthy and unhealthy hosts.

They alter their host organisms to suit the parasite.

snexplores.org/article/parasit

In another example, vampire bats have similar strategies as hedge fund managers, of "feed & fly off".
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampir

Although in the case of Chris Hohn, it's more "feed & eff off".

Go Up