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He ripped nobody off, he sold a company in the exact way you're supposed to sell a company or for that matter the exact way you sell anything with a limited supply. Heck thats how you sell a house.

Step 1. Find interested parties, Step 2. Get Bids. Step 3. Allow other interested parties to counter.

Thats it there's no scam here. Its not even genius its company selling 101. Everyone involved had the opportunity to do their due diligence. Instagram did the exact same thing turning a $500M Twitter offer into a $1B offer from Facebook.



In my mind what you call "company selling 101" is just a legal, high level form of profiteering.


It's an auction. Profiteering (price gouging) applies to commodities, which already have a market price.

Not even really zero-sum, because selling it to the person valuing it the most (to whom it is most useful) does create value.

But it's not as satisfying as making something that never existed before.


commodities, which already have a market price

Balls. Go to a commodity exchange and you know how you find the price? The last price paid at auction.

Sometimes the negotiation is disguised, using an order book or dealer system.

But sometimes they even explicitly run a call auction.

All Wall Street is is a continuous auction house.

All Supply/Demand is is a continuous auction.




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