Comment on Steam does the opposite of forcing Arbitration on its users

• givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Not sure, apparently the 25% figure is really new, Wikipedia is sourcing something from 2017 that says he has 50+.

  This is the most up to date I can find that attributes a source

  guru3d.com/…/microsoft-reportedly-readies-billion…

  Insights from Dior, a prominent figure in the Counter-Strike community, reveal that Gabe Newell owns less than 25% of Valve. This suggests that a significant portion of Newell’s wealth is tied to his equity in the company. The decision to sell Valve wouldn’t rest solely with Newell; numerous employees who likely hold stock options could also have a say through a voting process if an offer were made.

  So it sounds like a lot was given to employees from the beginning, which track with Gabe.

  Then he may have cashed out a couple times, but I doubt that when he could just do the billionaire thing where he borrows against his stock counting on the value increasing enough to pay off the last with a new?

  But then again Gabe is different and might not do that out of principle.

  It’s not publicly traded, so I guess we don’t really know unless Valve discloses who owns what. Which I just realized is pretty concerning on its own.

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  • eerongal@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    AFAIK, most of valve’s stock is held by employees, not private investors. It’s usually a pretty hard sell of “make the company you work at shittier to make more money”, especially since most of the employees probably know gabe personally (valve has less than 400 employees) and likely approve of his leadership.

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    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It’s usually a pretty hard sell of “make the company you work at shittier to make more money”, especially since most of the employees probably know gabe personally (valve has less than 400 employees) and likely approve of his leadership.

      And most of the ones with the high percent have been there since the beginning, probably close to Gabe’s age, looking towards retirement. They make good money, but retirement is expensive.

      Or they may die and their kids see dollar signs when a vote comes up

      Steam is great now, it’s not debatable. But its naive to expect it indefinitely. 10 years, 20 years from now? It wouldn’t be surprising if Valve was a lot shittier than it is today

      It won’t last forever

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      • eerongal@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        yeah, its hard to predict what will happen to it, especially after gabe steps down or dies, but depending on how much of the company is broadly owned by employees vs individuals, it can help to shield it from bad decisions. Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact numbers. If gabe + mike own 51+% then it could potentially lead to overriding employee will in a bad decision for money (either through their actions or through inheritance like you say). Or the employees could just collectively make a bad decision too.

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    • scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      As far as Gabe succession plans go, that’s a great good way to do it. You would need the majority of the employees’s shares to change something radically… That might actually work

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  • dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Well damn that’s going to bite gamers in the ass in the long term.

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