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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

oakley and luxottica

Congratulation!!! Jim.

You couldn’t pick the better home for your baby.
Looks like you are getting really serious about the RED project.
Wish you all the best.
Andrew
 
good news for us

good news for us

This is good news for future RED camera owners. The deal was for 2.1 billion in cash (not stock). That means Jim has mo money to invest in RED and more time to spend on RED. No more distractions about thinking about sunglasses.

Jim is smart to sell. Oakley is a mature company with limited growth potential. People are only going to buy so many sunglasses. Also the cheap Chinese knock offs will only get better in quality and take a bite out of sales. Think of how rich Jim would have been if he had sold Oakley ten years ago and had invested all that money in Apple stock, or Google stock not even ten years ago. I didn't say anything like that in the past because I didn't want to piss of Jim and have him send Jarred to my house to kick my ass.

There is a lot more growth potential in RED than there was left in Oakley. So now Jim has more money to spend on engineers at RED. That is great for us. At least us here at REDuser hope he invests that money in RED. If not Jim can always do an IPO of RED stock. Lets hope Jim doesn't use that 2 billion to buy a yacht to one up that Oracle CEO.

I didn't have any idea Jim would sell Oakley. I saw that a few months ago, Lens Crafters started sellin Oakley glasses at their store. I wonder if Luxxotica will discontinue the Oakley clothing (and snowboards) and only sell glasses. If so you Oakley lovers better make your own repository of Oakley goods. Better buy that TimeTank now because I am not sure that Luxxotica bought the Oakley brand to sell expensive watches.

Let me know if ther will be a RED stock IPO. :greedy:
 
Eugene said:
Let me know if ther will be a RED stock IPO.
Click to expand...

Jim has stated several times since founding RED that he planned to keep RED a private company. Unlike the RED specifications, which have necessarily been subject to change, I don't think Jim's position on keeping RED private will change.
 
keep it private

keep it private

Keeping RED private is a good idea if Jim wants to keep Sony from doing a hostile takeover of the company. I was just thinking of my own greed when I was talking about an IPO for RED.
 
Just because a company goes public, that doesn't mean anyone can take it over. For example, Jim could always choose to maintain 51% or more of all controlling interest in the company or even make all public shares non-voting. Different stock exchanges have different IPO and listing parameters too.

But as long as RED can be held privately, I think it's for the best. As soon as outside investments start coming in, even if shares have voting options or not, you're still going to collect influence from investors and will be somewhat dependent on a highly volatile investor stream.

If RED ever does go public, I'm sure I'd jump at the opportunity to invest.
 
Even if Jim were to retain 51% of the stock that doesn't mean he would have 100% control, majority share holders still have a responsibility to minority share holders to serve their best interest. If he wants to be able to do what he wants and not worry about getting sued, keeping it private is the way to go.
 
I was about to start a thread on this when I found this one - you folks get up early!

I just spent and hour writing up my thoughts on what it may mean for Red over on hdforindies.com, but basically, I think it is Jim stating he's All In for Red - good news for us.

Direct link for any who cares -

http://www.hdforindies.com/2007/06/oakley-getting-bought-by-luxottica.html
 
MikeCurtis said:
I was about to start a thread on this when I found this one - you folks get up early!

I just spent and hour writing up my thoughts on what it may mean for Red over on hdforindies.com, but basically, I think it is Jim stating he's All In for Red - good news for us.

Direct link for any who care -

http://www.hdforindies.com/2007/06/oakley-getting-bought-by-luxottica.html
Click to expand...

Oh, just had a little temporal advantage in living on the other side of the globe...
BTW, interesting commentary on HDforindies, Mike.
 
Wow. I would never expect that.
Best of luck Jim.

Gibby said:
Jim has stated several times since founding RED that he planned to keep RED a private company.
Click to expand...

I'm really glad to know that.
 
hey

hey

Hey, I shop at Lens Crafters. Don't compare them to Microsoft.

I feel bad for Luxxotica. No matter how much ad money they spend, they will never be able to get the image of The Boz and his mullet out of my mind. DOG the Bounty Hunter is a better image, but he has a mullet too. It will be interesting to see Luxxotica's ad campaign for Oakley. Will it include a blonde muscular guy with a mullet?

I hope Jarred doesn't grow a mullet and appear in RED ads. :clown2:

oakley.jpg
 
the primary reason to take a company public is to raise money to grow the business. there is also an element of prestige involved. i'm hoping jim is beyond the need to experience either of these.

keeping this private means keeping it in his control and focusing on what matters, which is developing the product line and innovating.

the great irony is that this privately held company is probably the most public company on the planet. most publicly traded companies have to listen to their minority stakeholders only at an annual meeting where, once a year, the single-share shareholder activists rise up to challenge the oligarchy publicly. meanwhile, here at reduser.net, jim and his team are answering to single-share shareholders daily.
 
Does any one know the details of the buy out? I mean often times part of the deal is that the current management stay on board. I think there is a good chance that Jim will be spending just as much time with Oakley as he was. i bet he is still on the board of directors. having said that, smart business people hire other smart business people to do their work. I'm willing to bet that Jim had other people running most of the day to day operations at Oakley long ago, leaving him to make the big decisions and start camera companies.
 
If you read the full press release on the link that Kalone provided in his thread-opening post, there are a lot of details about the deal.
 
Luxxotica must do an unbelievably crappy job of advertising because I've never heard of it nor has anyone I've ever known in my entire life. Haha, just kidding, but I've never heard of that company. I know of Lens Crafters obviously. And my impression of them is, eh, who cares.

When I think Oakley I think rugged, stylish, cool, quality, etc. Now that's advertising. Actually it's also having a good product line, hehe.

My dad took his company public in the '90s, worst experience he ever had, investors are morons and usually have no clue what's going on, so they randomly buy and sell based on knowing about as much as a box of rocks, and having to be accountable to them I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. He took his company back private again not that long after. There are still public shares out there, I think they sell for $0.01 each, but since the company still owes my dad like $4 million the chance of anyone owning those shares ever making a Canadian penny are pretty much nill. ;)
 
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