Re: rPI Goes Public

On 14/06/2024 09:44, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> writes:

On 14/06/2024 01:21, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:21:25 +0100, Pancho wrote:

My point was that The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity.

That’s not the company that has gone public.

>
The Raspberry Pi Foundation and Raspberry Pi Ltd (Or whatever it is
called) are intimately linked. Raspberry Pi Ltd is a subsidiary.

 Raspberry Pi Holdings plc. 49% owned by the foundation if I’m reading
the prospectus correctly.
 

Ok, Raspberry Pi Ltd was a subsidiary until a few days ago. Up until that point, the Raspberry Pi foundation owned ~75% and was effectively in control.

So the Raspberry Pi Foundation now has a large share of an asset worth
100s of millions. Shares that are easily convertible into cash. The
people who control Raspberry Pi Foundation have control over the
shares in Raspberry Pi Ltd.
>
People who control charities have a number of ways to enrich
themselves. Paying themselves large salaries is one way, employee
share ownership schemes are another.

 You can look up the salaries for the senior staff in the prospectus, if
you want. Personally I don’t think they’re unreasonable in context.
 

We will see what happens to the salaries now.
But, as I said, there are a number of ways to enrich themselves. Prior to the IPO ~15% of Raspberry Pi Limited was held by an employee trust.

Both of these methods are influenced by the perceived value of the
organisation. They will tell you they are growing the value of the
charity for the good of humanity, but they coincidentally get rich in
the process.

 Personally I think the people behind the Pi deserve to get rich, they’ve
made a product that’s both practically and socially useful.
>

Yes, someone has done a good job, I'm not sure who that is exactly. However, I don't think charities are appropriate vehicles for self enrichment. If that was their goal, they should  have formed a normal company.
In my experience, it is often the case that the people responsible for the success of a company are not the ones who control the business side, but the business side take more than a lions share of the profit.