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Post by OldGnome
Colonel667 wrote:
OldGnome wrote: So what? You still haven't "created" anything.
Oh yes, of course. Value. The maps were free and therefore worthless before the community here (and for small parts the staff) contributed to them.
"Free" certainly does not equal worthless. However, you still haven't "created" anything. You used that term and I insist that was incorrect.
Colonel667 wrote:If you think ignoring your user base is a great way to run a company, that's your opinion.
I never said that.
Colonel667 wrote:
OldGnome wrote: I hate to tell you this....remember a little IPO about mid-2012? Facebook is publicly traded.
I hate to tell you this... but there is a huge difference here in my opinion.
I wouldn't mind being able to get Waze stocks at all, I might actually like that (at some point, not for the unrealistic amounts of money Waze seems to think they are worth).
Hang on a second. You mentioned Facebook and what you would do when Zuckerberg sold it. I am only reminding you that he already DID that.
Colonel667 wrote:Ignoring user base. Not very smart. If Waze loses a lot of users like me, who are in the top 2% or so of users, they might end up the MySpace of social navigation.
I have seen darn few folks in the forums pop off about a weak rumor the way you have. I have seen in the past on forums for other free software, the same kind of threat -- "If you don't give me what I want, I will take my ball and bat and go home." I don't think Waze (or anyone) responds much well to those kinds of threats and I get annoyed when people think that threatening to leave is a useful negotiating tactic.
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Post by OldGnome
Colonel667 wrote:
OldGnome wrote: I never said that.
Yes, of course you did. Also you continue to do so.
Sorry, I'm not playing this game any more.

GPSDARH
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Post by petervdveen
I don't think you really have to wory about this.
This rumor gets back every now and then.
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Post by petervdveen
Well.. Just give every wazer a dollar for every edit and I'm okey with it ;-)
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Post by Poopstick
I hope it will never happen. Apple's stalinian policy is the complete opposite of the waze project. Android users would be screwed, and they are more than 50pc of the community.

OTOH I believe Waze's goal is to become the prominent actor in the mapping industry along telnav or Google. Why ruin it by selling the company to Apple which is slowly but surely declining? 'take the money and run' is IMHO the opposite of entrepreneurship.
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Post by Poopstick
Good question. No more edition for me as long as waze hasn't confirmed the rumor is not true. I don't want to work for Apple.
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Post by Poopstick
Investors are indeed the real threat. You can't refuse a return on investment which represents your investment 10 folds.

It's either being bought by Apple or Google or become the prominent mapping actor but it's more risky and probably less profitable.

It's basically entrepreneurship vs speculation.

As for what apple could do with Waze: what they want is traffic data and maybe a pair of navigation algorithms. They don't give a damn about the community and the road layer. Waze's maps are probably not something which could be merged easily with Apple's, especially with all the imperfections.

Edit: selling would be IMHO a mistake. Apple is past (if not a dead man walking), crowdsourcing still has a long way to go with the newer generations which were born after Internet has become widespread.
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Post by Poopstick
dmcconachie wrote:
Poopstick wrote:Investors are indeed the real threat. You can't refuse a return on investment which represents your investment 10 folds.


Edit: selling would be IMHO a mistake. Apple is past (if not a dead man walking), crowdsourcing still has a long way to go with the newer generations which were born after Internet has become widespread.
Aren't you contradicting yourself there?

Private equity investors will happily turn down a 10x ROIC if future returns are estimated in excess of that. Just ask Ronald Wayne! In this case I'm pretty sure it's less than half of that anyway. $67m of investment vs Waze's supposed acceptable figure of $750m. Pretty sure Waze will have retained more than 50% of the company during funding! Which would also leave the ultimate decision in the hands of the Waze board presuming they didn't hand majority voting rights away which would be unusual if not unheard of.
I hope you're right! Unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable enough on this matter. If the founders of waze keep the upper hand we have a chance to see it survive.

I see investors as a threat since for the last 30 years investors are only looking for a quick ROI rather than pushing a project to its end. They screwed up the western world by moving factories to China. Now China is knocking at the door with Made BY China stuff.
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Post by Poopstick
And good part of German cars are built outside Germany and you'll see Chinese cars able to compete with the best European models within the next decade. You can't make business with the Chinese unless you're ready to sell them the know how as well. Guess what they did with your ICE technology recently?
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