Eben Upton says hobbyists remain "incredibly important" while he's involved.

The business arm of Raspberry Pi is preparing to make an initial public offering (IPO) in London. CEO Eben Upton tells Ars that should the IPO happen, it will let Raspberry Pi’s not-for-profit side expand by “at least a factor of 2X.” And while it’s “an understandable thing” that Raspberry Pi enthusiasts could be concerned, “while I’m involved in running the thing, I don’t expect people to see any change in how we do things.”

  • garretble@lemmy.worldEnglish
    177·
    9 months ago

    All I know is that basically every IPO I’ve seen has eventually made the product worse. I have no data to back this up, just feelings, but still. As soon as a company starts worrying about shareholders, corners start getting cut or prices start going up for no reason.

    • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      80·
      9 months ago

      Straight up this has me concerned for the same reason

      Once a company becomes beholden to shareholders that’s literally the goal

      • ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.worldEnglish
        49·
        9 months ago

        More of the same here. This is extremely depressing news.

        It sucks that running a successful business can never be enough.

        Prepare for Pi to start going closed source and fighting against “copycat” SBC boards. It’ll take a generation to see the enshittification set in, but Orange Pi and other similar projects are going to be the winners in a strictly profit based comparison.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      343·
      9 months ago
      • Google
      • Reddit

      Those are the best two examples that come to my mind. Both were great until they IPO’d.

      The problem, as I see it, with IPO’s is that the company becomes beholden to shareholders who care nothing for the product, and only for the profit. Quality and profit are fairly mutually exclusive these days.

        • alekwithak@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          9 months ago

          Sometimes you have to pre-suck to show investors you are serious about dismantling your company so they can feed on the corpse.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
        4·
        9 months ago

        Google IPO’d back in 2004. Do you really consider that to be the pivotal point in Google’s history?

        Reddit hasn’t even IPO’d yet.

        • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Going IPO does not immediately turn a company evil. That’s something that happens over time, because of being beholden to so many shareholders who only care about profit.

          Reddit hasn’t even IPO’d yet.

          Reddit has been making many user-detrimental changes in preparation for their IPO.

      • theneverfoxEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        It’s not that quality and profit are mutually exclusive - look at valve, Wegmans… Fuck the list of well known companies I can think of off the top of my head is pretty short.

        But you can be plenty profitable and produce quality products, with ethical business practices no less.

        Exponential growth is what’s incompatible with quality. And taking the money is what sets you on the path - when you take investments, you’re trapped. Eventually, you’re going to have to IPO, and every step of the way they’ll be pushing you to take more investments, more loans, reinvest it in growth… Because if you explode overnight they’ll make 100 or 1000x their investment, and if not you can sell off your future to look good for your IPO, and they’ll still make a ton of money.

        And if you fail? Well, venture capitalism is the scratch off of investments… It’s high risk high reward, one big winner makes up for all the losers - a modest win barely competes with far safer investments

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.caEnglish
      81·
      9 months ago

      When they are private they still have shareholders, the shares are just not available to the public. When it goes public is when some of those private shareholders want to cash out. So they drive the fundamentals however and sell the stock over the next years.

      • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        I believe that being publicly traded means that you are obligated to maximize shareholder returns, whereas a privately-held company can have literally any goals, as long as it pays taxes and follows the law.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Yes but that part is not exactly as strong as you portray. The BOD has the power to decide what to do and how to do it, so they can decide on pretty much anything and say it’s for long term return. They can decide on doing more environmentally, DEI, ESG, the rarely seen good wages, keep manufacturing in the west, donations, whatever. They have pretty much complete leeway and can always say it’s for long term return. Also the main (only?) way for the shareholder return obligation to play out is a class action lawsuit by the shareholders, who they are the majority of. (You may hear about it a lot because the far right is trying to rely on this idea to prevent companies from doing anything they don’t like.)