998
Thats fucked up, why sell it? Give it back to the workers.
Sell it, keep $100M, distribute $1,500M to the employees who built the company with you.
...sit on the beach with your former employees as just people, discussing who has the cutest little umbrella in their drink and laughing at the stock value of the global conglomerate that bought a business that no longer has employees.
No, just distribute ownership amongst the workers. Keep a majority share if youre worried they arent responsible enough.
I guess it just depends on the scope. Since we were talking about giving way over a billion, I was envisioning the employees being set for life and having no concern for the continued operation of the business.
If we're talking about thousands of people, then I guess either option is pretty sweet. Either you keep your same job but now have equity and control, or you keep your same job under new ownership but see an extra $500,000 cash just drop into your checking account.
I took a look at the article and I got no impression of the employee count, but the dude who sold the company seems like the rare ultra-rich startup CEO business owner who is somehow based as fuck.
It sounds like starting companies is just what he likes doing, and/or is driven to do. I have to admit I'm a little jealous because imagine being a decent person, and first being told you have no rent or bills ever again, and then being given 1,500 Million Dollars to just give to people and causes you care about. That would be off-the-charts fun and rewarding.
(edit to add: the article may have been written in a misleading way such that he gave away less than half the money rather than over 90%, so maybe he's not quite so based. Still way ahead of the pack. Something I have often said is that in order to become a billionaire, you have to be the kind of person who can have $100M and still put in overtime because you aren't satisfied. It sounds like this guy at least works because he wants to and is thinking in the right direction)
Article snippet:
The 48-year-old is now building his third startup, a supply-chain emissions data company called Scope3. Still, he claims you’ll never catch him joining the billionaires club. “I will never be that wealthy. Even if Scope3 is immensely successful, we will give that money away.”
Just seems sick to build a company off the backs of your employees then say, "you know what take the equity and spend it elsewhere who cares about the people who got me here. They have been gifted a job like the good servants they are."
Good for him tbh, being a billionare WILL slowly corrode your mind and soul
I saw a meme or something a while back that said to eliminate billionaires, every cent over 999 million should be taxed at 100%, we could give them a little plaque that says you won capitalism and they'd still have more money than anyone could spend in a single lifetime.
I've said stuff like that before, but I bet we can do even better. You don't just tax the extra money they make and be done. You publicize the great things the money does, and you give the people awards, titles, and attention in whatever way seems effective.
So maybe next year AWS keeps growing like crazy and Jeff Bezos's yearly "donation" is like 30 Billion dollars. He never sees that money, yet he still lives a billionaire lifestyle. The government uses that money to have schools offer every child in the country three hot nutritious meals per day, and some hallway in DC gets a plaque that says Jeff Bezos: Savior of the Children and the Future of American Brainpower. We all win in the ways we care about.
If it's ok for companies to psychologically manipulate and/or physically harm people in pursuit of profit, then it's ok for we the people to use the bottomless narcissism and ambition of the CEO class as an energy source.
Well that's certainly nicer than how the French handled it
Sounds good
Put it in the bank and live off the interest
why didn't he pay a bunch of that to the employees?
Because that's against how the system works. Shareholders can and will sue your company if you don't maximise profits. I honestly do not believe that we will achieve an acceptable distribution of wealth under capitalism.
That's a certainty as equitable distribution of wealth is diametrically opposed to the fundamental working of the capitalist system.
There's nothing wrong with billionaires in themselves, that'd be stupid. A billion's js a number slowly losing it's value as time goes on. It's how the money's acquired that matters.
A lot and overwhelming amt of billionaires in places like america make their money thru fistfucking their entire country and the destruction of society, but they don't notice money's just a number, a value and once that society's destroyed you can't eat money. Like I said nothing wrong with making money but it depends on how you make it.
Most billionaires make their money from coming out of the right womb.
Which is why inheritance tax is a thing even tho most find ways to avoid it.
As long as they pay their dues, instead of leaving us plebs to run their own state for them, which granted a lot of them don't, idrc. I want to make P's as much as anyone else but if the game's rigged against my favour we need to change the game.
Same way how in sport people win and lose, that's not the issue, but the game has to be fair, we can't allow doping, the playing field has to be even.
Soft disagree. I think even numerical wealth past a certain number is a sign of, at best, incoherent markets.
Should have shared the money with the workers who built the company into a $1.6B valuation and worth acquisition.
If anything he should have invested it into effecting political change. But that other person is right; it's never good enough for you.
In Russia that's an oligarchy. Yet here you are advocating it?
Oh, for fuck's sake.
I'm not advocating for the system. I'm just suggesting a way the money could do the greatest good.
Money can buy political change. That shouldn't be true, but it is.
If you're so hungry for a target to be mad at that you imagine them like this, maybe it's time to take a little break.
duckin' A
Good for him.
Raise the taxes, remove the cap on FICA contributions, implement universal healthcare.
I love the sentiment but want to make sure it's understood that M4A would cost less, not more, than what we have today. The US government already spends more per citizen on healthcare than most governments with universal programs. The money just doesn't go to healthcare, it pays for profits and unnecessary overhead (like CEO salaries) at insurance companies, physician networks, hospitals, and medical suppliers.
The US government already spends more per citizen on healthcare than most governments with universal programs. The money just doesn’t go to healthcare
Then the US is nor spending that money per citizen, now is it?
"Per citizen" doesn't imply that the money ia going to each citizens. It nust means "total spent divided by the number of citizens".
Just a general reminder to anyone to use a site like Charity Navigator to find good causes to donate to.
Seems to be only American
Because most other Western countries have social security networks paid for by taxes, which are infinitely more efficient than the temporary bandaid which is charity.
load more comments
(1 replies)
How many more people/companies do we need to see doing this before we see change?
I am praising the action not the individual :)
I reserve my praises until I learn how exactly he gave away the money. Family-controlled foundations that only do political lobbing while avoiding taxes are a thing .
I wasn't able to find details with a quick search, but it sounds like it wasn't his own foundation:
After the AppNexus sale, O’Kelley and his wife carefully chose which causes to support. Their donations focus on education, social justice, technology access, and healthcare initiatives.
https://www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2025/08/could-you-give-away-1-5-billion-like-this-ceo/
Perhaps the only good billionaire is one who isn't.
Perhaps the only good billionaire is one who isn’t.
Duh
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
O’Kelley’s [sic] says billionaires represent “such an incredibly ludicrous waste of money in a world where there’s so many people who don’t have that,” but he says actually being one is also “othering”—separating you from the limits and consequences that define normal life. “There’s something about keeping connected to normalcy that is really, really important,” the entrepreneur explains. “I don’t want a yacht and I don’t ever want to be able to be without consequences. I think that’s the biggest risk, is, how can we be accountable when we have so much money we can buy anything?”
He gets it. Past a certain point, wealth erodes your humanity. I think I'd have picked $100M too - at a safe 4% return that's $4M per year, plenty for anybody to live on but not megayacht money.
I've always said If I could have enough where I could purchase in cash a cottage in a small cottage town here in Canada with a top of the line internet connection and I'd never have to work or worry about money for the rest of my life I'd be happy. what would I do? nothing. I'd pursue my hobby projects, more FOSS development, gaming, painting, build model kits, drink beer, eat whatever I wanted, and socialize with as few people as possible.
That's all i want. I just want enough money right now to achieve that.
load more comments
(68 replies)
When a billionaire gives money away, it's usually to their own charity, and it's to avoid paying taxes. Of course it sounds good to say they gave it away but it reality, they give it to a charity they fully control.
Or to reinvent their image, and not be look upon as a terrible person. Aka, gates
Basically he paid the cost of buying the Benevolent Nerd Dad image when you're primarily known for running a company with some of the most anti-competitive practices ever around.
and his now potential association with epstein. i had a feeling it was because of this.
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
998 points (100.0% liked)
News
31674 readers
1901 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS