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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 :)

PLEASE! GO PUBLIC!

Louis Maddalena

Louis Maddalena

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patiently awaiting an IPO.

As long as RED continues to aim to please stakeholders just as much as shareholders then it could be one awesome company to invest it.
 
I hope the exact opposite. Going public - having to please shareholder's rather than Jim's vision is exactly the opposite of what this company needs.
 
Jake Bastian said:
I hope the exact opposite. Going public - having to please shareholder's rather than Jim's vision is exactly the opposite of what this company needs.
Click to expand...

I agree a 1000%!!!!!

Going public would kill RED.
 
Louis Maddalena said:
As long as RED continues to aim to please stakeholders just as much as shareholders then it could be one awesome company to invest it.
Click to expand...

If Jim's priorities had been:

1.) Make good money
2.) Make cameras that support the main business objective

Then going public would make sense.

Fortunately for us, his priorities are:

1.) Make kick-ass cameras
2.) Make some money along the way
 
+1 please don't.

Jim is most probably certifiably crazy. And Jarred is getting there.

But without that maverick spirit Red would not exist. And I would still be shooting on cameras that are called XY-E 76.
 
To tell you the truth, I saw the Scarlet on DPreview and even that gave me a sinking sensation, like it was the beginning of the end to all this feeling special for being part of a select fortunate group.
 
When your #1 priority shifts from making your CUSTOMERS happy, to making your INVESTORS happy, you have lost your compass.

I have never seen it come out better after the IPO. Some people make a ton whoring out the name. But ten years down the road, after the brand has been cheapened to sell low-end-consumer-retail crap, we will all wish you hadn't.

I could make a LONG list of examples.
 
KETCH ROSSi said:
Unless of course Jim/Jarred retain in absolute control!!
Click to expand...

They could....

When you go public you don't have to give up all shares in the company. Jim could maintain 50% + ownership after an IPO (either by Preferred Shares or a Majority stake of common shares). You can take a company public and only offer 5%, 10%, 15%, or whatever size stake in the company you choose. So Jim/Red Insiders, maintain voting control, and thus all operational control; aka, they'd control the board of directors, with no influence from the (public) shareholders. At that point, shareholders are basically just in it for the ride.

Granted, there's a lot of rules and regulations, and annual and quarterly paperwork that needs to be done and filed with the feds. In which they'd probably have to disclose certain insider information that they don't want to be released.
 
If RED had been a public company I seriously doubt Epic and Scarlet would have been released. What makes RED so unique is it is 100% controlled by someone with a clear vision and an unmatched amount of passion. Little things along the way like camera bugs and collapsing economies don't get in the way of eventually delivering what seemed impossible. I just can't see shareholders stomaching the extra 2 years of r&d it took to bring Scarlet and Epic to market.
 
If Jim wants to go public for shits and giggles or whatever, it should be a tiny fraction of the shares and no more. I would not want to see RED bought up by a bunch of hedge fund douchebags, who would cause problems.
 
I don't see a RED IPO being a negative thing like in many other public companies.

I'm way more business minded than film minded so I think it'd probably be good for red as a business. As long as they can maintain their small company feel and abilities to change direction. The success can be seen with Apple. Jim and Steve are so much the same and Apple was never crippled by being public, however the huge surge of money going into Apple due to shares being bought helped their company grow. Using some of the money from the IPO to fund a more robust R&D department pumping out all the great stuff they're pumping out now but even better, and faster!
 
Jim and Jarred know what is best for their company.

These are the guys that are having the cameras made in the USA
These are the guys that are having the cameras made in California
These are the guys that are offering upgrades instead of planned obsolence
These are the guys that are delivering devices that achieve the maximum potential they can instead of "preventing" enabling technologies.

I support what they are doing 100%. They make the most innovative Motion Imaging System in the World right now - and I don't think they are going broke doing it.

That is all I have to say.
 
As one who has worked with and helped companies go public for the past 30 years, the one thing I would do if it were my decision is to never go public. Who needs it? The hassles, the ridiculous shareholder demands, the public scrutiny, the very essence of life drained slowly from your marrow, the reporting, etc. The rewards do not justify it. If Jim ever wants to cash out, he has several ways of doing so, one would be to make the employees owners of the company and for all I know, they very well may be already. Nothing like being a co-owner of your own destiny to make the company work harder. But being a benevolent dictatorship has many rewards too. It can may you a billionaire several times over.
 
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