Wow. You seem really upset about this conversation.So its OK to "judge" a person's or corporation's business activities by how YOU PERCEIVE how they "acted" and their "intent"?
Do you want all YOUR personal business transactions judged in the same manner?
I quoted your post not to attack you, but because you referred to Anchor which is in my backyard, and of which i have second hand knowledge of the equity bro transaction that i wanted to reference and comment on- that “sell out” is generally a derogatory term, but pointless when used against someone who is literally intending to sell out, like the equity guys.
I have no problem with people judging and having their own opinions. Ive been called a greedy landlord, greedy developer, irresponsible business owner, gentrifier, etc. Free speech baby. Love it or leave it. When you combine free speech and capitalism this what you get.
Let me try to reiterate and go a bit further. The idea of selling out is like pornography- its a “know it when you see it” thing. And thats an individual opinion. You have yours- i have mine, that other dude has his.
I don’t understand why you jump into challenging the idea that folks can try and evaluate why a company did what they did before they they decide to call it selling out? Is it bad to think about something before you make a decision? That seems pretty dumb.
Maytag put in millions and decades before calling it quits. Can you call him a sell out? Sure. But its definitely debatable, given the long history, especially his age. Dude was at retirement age. I dont see that as selling out.
Lagunitas is similar in that they’ve been around for ages. But they still run their own show, so i fail to see how thats selling out. Its taking in a big investor. Big difference.
The LA brewery designed and planned for buyout, thats a sell out to me. Even though technically the founder is still there and they still run their own show, ala Lagunitas.
And the equity bros who bought anchor? Purchased with the explicit intent to flip it. Its just silly to even bother calling it a sell out when that was their stated goal from the get go. Its like calling that goth kid a weirdo- obvious and exactly what he wants to be.
To be clear- when i say the LA deal offends me, its because it signaled that craft beer is officially a big business market for capital/wall street/global equity,etc. Id take the money in a heartbeat if it happened to me, but its still a bummer for what it says about this little area of the brewing world.
The point i intended to make above with different examples is that we should think about the context before just automatically calling it selling out, and same for those throwing up a boycott. Everyone has their own opinion and judgement, i simply say folks should try and learn a little before they judge.
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