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You are not the first or only person to have doubts, but they have been very successful in attracting startup and venture capital.
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Wow, the freezing of investment is a very interesting turn of events
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The investment was to grow there manufacturing operation, since they laid off most of there production staff it makes sense.
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I just wonder why they did it immediately after getting the funding.
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02-26-2019, 02:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2019, 02:44 PM by robdrimmie.)
Rampant speculation follows.
It may be the case that owning the manufacturing process outright was the wrong choice. Perhaps after a few months of reality it was determined that there are better/cheaper/faster ways to build the products elsewhere, or they were able to use their own facility as a lever to get better deals with manufacturers elsewhere. The price drop may or may not be relevant here.
Alternatively, there's a lot of valuable intellectual property and deeply skilled people (not just tech - sales, marketing, fashion, retail, lots of other roles outside of manufacturing) that would be attractive to acquirers, and Amazon's Alexa fund might not explicitly be about acquisition but it has to be at least a real consideration when funding companies. Owning manufacturing (especially the labor burden) may have been a block.
Extremely unlikely: During the HQ2 process Amazon was convinced enough by the Toronto bid of the value of an office in this area, and North being a close partner via the Alexa fund made it easy. The existence of a new/expanded Toronto office demonstrates the appeal of the area, but is more likely to be a vote against a Waterloo office.
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I never really understood the appeal of the armband. Sure, it was shiny, but there are other technologies out there already that do the same thing with less effort.
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The way it worked was exceedingly cool but killer use cases never came to be.
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I think this bit of the article pretty much sums it up:
... " In interviews, many former employees and people close to the company describe its cofounders as visionary technologists who stumbled badly in the marketplace. Now it leaves a legacy of products few people wanted, plus a trail of aggravated staffers and investors who once bought into its vision. " ...
I imagine any staff that are kept will be incorporated into the existing Google offices?
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It'll depend on what they plan to do. If they intend to continue with the business, they may want to keep North's existing space. Google's new building is still just a hole in the ground.