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[Killer8]

The timing of it all is important. Bungie got bought and the gravy train came trundling through, so this guy hoovered up a lot of these cars over a year long period. That was back when nobody thought they would be let go. Life seemed good.

Now that the company is actually struggling to show its worth, so much so that Sony need to step in and fire a bunch of people, the honeymoon period is over. But it's not like the guy was twirling an evil mustache and clicking buy on car auctions in between firing people. You can't exactly go back in time and undo enjoying the good times just because times are hard now.

 

[nikolino840]

Vintage cars, if taken care of, gain in value, not lose it. He probably saw the insane inflation and decided to invest to protect his newly gained wealth against it.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

As someone said, timing is key. I'm the farthest from a reee commie as someone can be, BUT this shows what kind of personality this dude has.

He's a scumbag that lies to his staff, investors, and even to his mom, all this while posturing on twitter as SJW. A dishonest piece of shit that should have no business in this or any other industry.

 

[SantaC]

I mean he is free to spend his money how he wants

 

[Nigel]

Based. It's what I'd do to be fair. Aston Martin DBS (1969) would be my first purchase.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I mean he is free to spend his money how he wants

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

 

[PeteBull]

As someone said, timing is key. I'm the farthest from a reee commie as someone can be, BUT this shows what kind of personality this dude has.

He's a scumbag that lies to his staff, investors, and even to his mom, all this while posturing on twitter as SJW. A dishonest piece of shit that should have no business in this or any other industry.

Ppl in the business world are valued for their merit, not for theit morals, sorry.
As big antifeminist and anti-woke guy, who remembers what it is like to live under communism here in europe- he can do w/e he wants with his hard earned money, no1 forced sony to make such a terrible deal, and no1 forces any1 to work at bungie either.

Remember even tho he is big sjw/leftist- no1 made him a DEI hire as former owner/ceo of bungie, he had to climb there and sweat blood to stay there- many CEO's have dark triad characteristics ofc- that helps them be more efficient and he likely isnt an exception either

 

[NoobSmog]

Don't really care how he spends his money, it does demonstrate how much money going towards acquisitions is completely wasted though.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

I would have done something similar if I had the money

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Ppl in the business world are valued for their merit, not for theit morals, sorry.
As big antifeminist and anti-woke guy, who remembers what it is like to live under communism here in europe- he can do w/e he wants with his hard earned money, no1 forced sony to make such a terrible deal, and no1 forces any1 to work at bungie either.

Remember even tho he is big sjw/leftist- no1 made him a DEI hire as former owner/ceo of bungie, he had to climb there and sweat blood to stay there- many CEO's have dark triad characteristics ofc- that helps them be more efficient and he likely isnt an exception either

The thing is, that money is not legit. What this guy did is a textbook scam.

- Bloat the studio's headcount with fake roles and projects, inflating its acquisition price.

- Cash out and leave after the acquisition.

This kind of behavior should be prosecuted. And I wonder if someone else at Sony benefited, too.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

The thing is, that money is not legit. What this guy did is a textbook scam.

- Bloat the studio's headcount with fake roles and projects, inflating its acquisition price.

- Cash out and leave after the acquisition.

This kind of behavior should be prosecuted. And I wonder if someone else at Sony benefited, too.

Oof, if that was the play, it sounds pretty scummy.

I'm sure some people will praise his business acumen though.

 

[Denton]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

Taxes are extracted from people under threat of violence.

People give money to Bungie voluntarily, people work at Bungie voluntarily and Sony bought Bungie voluntarily and it was on them to do due dilligence.

These two situations are not the same. In fact, they are the opposite.

And if you have any evidence that the guy did any scam/fraud, I hope you sue him and win.

 

[RoboFu]

Oh no... how can someone BUY Things for himself with his own money? How awful!

Stop being jealous .... he can do what he wants with his money and it's none of our concern.

 

[Ozriel]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

He bid on cars that became available. Why would he pass on a limited collectors item on sale just to spare some peoples feelings?

The thing is, that money is not legit. What this guy did is a textbook scam.

- Bloat the studio's headcount with fake roles and projects, inflating its acquisition price.

- Cash out and leave after the acquisition.

This kind of behavior should be prosecuted. And I wonder if someone else at Sony benefited, too.

Your argument that Sony - a multinational megacorp - has no sensible lawyers and accountants is fucking hilarious.

The acquisition price would have been largely based on IP value and annual revenues, plus future projections. Sony had half a year to work this deal.

 

[PeteBull]

The thing is, that money is not legit. What this guy did is a textbook scam.

- Bloat the studio's headcount with fake roles and projects, inflating its acquisition price.

- Cash out and leave after the acquisition.

This kind of behavior should be prosecuted. And I wonder if someone else at Sony benefited, too.

Come on bro, sony spending 3,8b usd on bungie aquisition and u think they got scammed? If they did then i got 0 empathy for them , and i say it as a big sony fan(or rather, their consoles/games fan, dont care about brand itself ;p).

 

[Bernardougf]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

Politician is a public servant this guy works for the private sector .... two very very different things .... if the money is legal and there is no wrong doing..than cry me a river.

 

[Astray]

This isn't about his money and whether or not he has the right to spend it (he does).

It's just basic decency to not show off your cash to an employee right before you gank them. Like do what you gotta do to get that bag, but be sensible about it like a normal adult.

 

[Astray]

Your argument that Sony - a multinational megacorp - has no sensible lawyers and accountants is fucking hilarious.

The acquisition price would have been largely based on IP value and annual revenues, plus future projections. Sony had half a year to work this deal.

Hence why they inserted a clause where they get to run Bungie if certain metrics weren't being hit.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Are CEOs overpaid Vs the average worker and at what cost is the question you're supposed to consider, I think.

The point isn't critiquing how he spent the money (I think he's got some good choices in there) more that perhaps that a tiny minority of people could get paid merely a ridiculously large amount of money instead of the even bigger paycheck they get, and maybe businesses would be able to lay off fewer people.

At some point owning 25 cars doesn't really feel much better than owning 10, etc.

Should a company not be allowed to decide how to compensate their CEO? Massive amounts of wealth and jobs can get created or destroyed because of his decisions. I’m assuming the board paid him that much because they thought he was worth it. And they’re welcome to fire him and try to hire a new CEO for a “more ethical” salary, but then good luck getting the one they actually want.

 

[Imagine Wagons]

As someone said, timing is key. I'm the farthest from a reee commie as someone can be, BUT this shows what kind of personality this dude has.

He's a scumbag that lies to his staff, investors, and even to his mom, all this while posturing on twitter as SJW. A dishonest piece of shit that should have no business in this or any other industry.

Hell yeah, I'd do that too for that kind of money

 

[Topher]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

No it isn't. That's tax payer money. Bungie's CEO got a big pay day from the acquisition. How he spends it is indeed up to him. I think the shitty part was him supposedly flaunting it to people he was about to lay off.

 

[RagnarokIV]

I'd buy a DMC DeLorean and drive it past the layoffs saying "I'm gonna go back in time and lay you off again!! LMAO!!"

 

[MHubert]

I bet the purple forum communists, looking at how Bungie struggles under Pete Parsons' command, actually believe that the man should not be able to enjoy his legitimately earned wealth and instead should be subsidizing Bungie's - let's remember an asset owned not by him, but by Sony Group Corporation - with money coming out of his own pocket.

That's the level of internet dementia behind this ill-conceived angle of critique against Bungie's otherwise terrible CEO.

Thanks. Good post.

 

[Unknown?]

Vintage cars, if taken care of, gain in value, not lose it. He probably saw the insane inflation and decided to invest to protect his newly gained wealth against it.

Especially with the state of new cars. Spyboxes that can be hacked leaving you with no control. Also one sensor going out can render the car useless without a several hundred dollar fix.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

New money moves. Will be broke in 5 years.

I literally tripled my money on my collection when I decided to mainly live in Florida and no longer wanted to deal with my old cars

 

[ReBurn]

Vintage cars, if taken care of, gain in value, not lose it. He probably saw the insane inflation and decided to invest to protect his newly gained wealth against it.

Cash hidden under a mattress or sitting in a standard checking account loses value over time. It makes sense to invest money in assets that increase in value over time.

Having wealth doesn't make someone scummy. What makes the guy scummy is flaunting his wealth to people he's about to put out of a job.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I remember when the creators of Doom bought a fancy sports car. I remember wishing I had that kind of talent.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Should a company not be allowed to decide how to compensate their CEO? Massive amounts of wealth and jobs can get created or destroyed because of his decisions. I’m assuming the board paid him that much because they thought he was worth it. And they’re welcome to fire him and try to hire a new CEO for a “more ethical” salary, but then good luck getting the one they actually want.

I guess it's an idealistic stance that I'm taking. One that essentially asks "should you have less so I can have more?" And I think CEO pay is one of those things where the pay is growing at such an exponential rate that you have to question what the cost might be and if you're happy for it to continue.

Some people are cool with it and genuinely believe that those people are worth and earn their money, or take a practical bent on their thought process, similar to your allusion - concluding that nothing can change so we must continue down this road doing things the way we are doing them now.

I think it's worth at least having a conversation to see how people feel about it, to see if it's possible to empathise with someone getting laid off because a business needs to cut costs, while simultaneously awarding bonuses to the top paid people in the organisation and wondering how fair that is, how much influence a CEO has on the business versus how important the people actually making, marketing, selling the product, etc. etc. are.

Some people might say it'd be crazy for CEOs to get paid 100 times more than a productive, valued member of staff on an average wage.

But, the 350 top paid CEOs actually get paid 400 times the average worker. At that rate, if a CEO was prepared to only get paid 300 times the average worker, they could save 100 jobs being considered for a layoff.

Some people will say a CEO salary is worth that, I'm not so sure.

One chart shows just how much CEO pay has outstripped workers' wages

In 1978, CEOs made just 30 times more than their workers — but their compensation has grown by over 1,000% since then.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[rm082e]

The thing is, that money is not legit. What this guy did is a textbook scam.

- Bloat the studio's headcount with fake roles and projects, inflating its acquisition price.

- Cash out and leave after the acquisition.

This kind of behavior should be prosecuted. And I wonder if someone else at Sony benefited, too.

Sony bought his company. If they overpaid for it, that's on them. If they bought it, they had access to all of the books. They could have hired a consultant to review the employee roster, look at the salaries, compare to market value, and come up with their own valuation for the company. They could have told the owner(s) they would only purchase the company if they first did a RIF.

There is nothing to blame on the CEO here, unless some evidence comes out that he lied about something. All frustration around Bungie should be directed at Sony. When they bought them, they assumed the responsibility of running the company.

 

[BigBeauford]

Pretty sure when a game is underperforming by 50% of the outlined metrics, $2.4M redistributed isn't going to save all of these jobs. We are talking 10's of millions worth here.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The guy is a close to a billionaire so he can do whatever the wants, though flaunting it to normal employees that will never get anywhere close to his success is a bit crass

I think Gabe Newell still lives in his mom’s basement as a counter example

 

[Sanepar]

C-level is the biggest waste of money of any company. Total useless.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

If anybody had an issue with him getting paid that much (to be buying those cars) at the time in the company the board could have reduced it but you don't retroactively try and lambast somebody. This is different to being frivolous with company money while or shortly after doing massive cost cutting. If he got a pay raise now while others got fired then by all means complain but this is a dumb witch hunt to be going after him for how he spent his money after 2022.

To me, I dont think it's so much about buying tons of cars, it's him bragging about it to coworkers, and then being a boss who decides on firing. Anyone with lots of money can buy whatever they want. But it's how showboaty someone is. My bro bought a house for $3M cash, and he has other inv properties worth another $3M and he never showed anyone on social media because he doesn't have any except a boring Linkedin job profile. He also has a Porsche. Aside from his house, none of us in the fam even knows what his other properties look like because he's never sent us pics. He just tells us what it is and where and what it'd valued at or rent he collects.

The vast majority of CEOs dont brag about their homes or cars to people.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I guess it's an idealistic stance that I'm taking. One that essentially asks "should you have less so I can have more?" And I think CEO pay is one of those things where the pay is growing at such an exponential rate that you have to question what the cost might be and if you're happy for it to continue.

Some people are cool with it and genuinely believe that those people are worth and earn their money, or take a practical bent on their thought process, similar to your allusion - concluding that nothing can change so we must continue down this road doing things the way we are doing them now.

I think it's worth at least having a conversation to see how people feel about it, to see if it's possible to empathise with someone getting laid off because a business needs to cut costs, while simultaneously awarding bonuses to the top paid people in the organisation and wondering how fair that is, how much influence a CEO has on the business versus how important the people actually making, marketing, selling the product, etc. etc. are.

Some people might say it'd be crazy for CEOs to get paid 100 times more than a productive, valued member of staff on an average wage.

But, the 350 top paid CEOs actually get paid 400 times the average worker. At that rate, if a CEO was prepared to only get paid 300 times the average worker, they could save 100 jobs being considered for a layoff.

Some people will say a CEO salary is worth that, I'm not so sure.

One chart shows just how much CEO pay has outstripped workers' wages

In 1978, CEOs made just 30 times more than their workers — but their compensation has grown by over 1,000% since then.

www.businessinsider.com

Companies don’t hire employees (especially expensive ones like engineers) simply because they can afford to do so. They hire employees because they have something worthwhile for those employees to do that will generate a return on their investment.

Nor should they. If a company is over staffed and doesn’t have something worthwhile for some employees to do, they should cut them lose so those employees can hopefully find a job where their abilities are put to a more productive use. It’s not the Great Recession anymore. We’re at basically full employment where even fast food and retail employers can’t get enough workers despite paying like 18$/hr starting.

And demand for labor in the tech industry was so high a couple years ago that companies were snatching up every engineer they could while they could. Like people fighting for toilet paper at Costco.

I just don’t see how capping CEO pay would help anyone. It wouldn’t create more jobs, all it would do is make it harder for a company to attract and retain the CEO they want.

 

[AJUMP23]

He is allowed to spend the money he earned by building the company and selling it however he wants.

 

[TGO]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

Thing is people would say things like this even if they didn't raise the taxes, as if they couldn't afford it to begin with.
Most if not all politicians can afford the stuff people accuse them of using tax money to pay for.
Am I saying they don't do this? No
But it makes no difference if they do or not, you'll still think they are.

 

[Interfectum]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

Huge difference between private and public money.

 

[ultrazilla]

I mean he is free to spend his money how he wants

Optics. It's optics.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Companies don’t hire employees (especially expensive ones like engineers) simply because they can afford to do so. They hire employees because they have something worthwhile for those employees to do that will generate a return on their investment.

Nor should they. If a company is over staffed and doesn’t have something worthwhile for some employees to do, they should cut them lose so those employees can hopefully find a job where their abilities are put to a more productive use. It’s not the Great Recession anymore. We’re at basically full employment where even fast food and retail employers can’t get enough workers despite paying like 18$/hr starting.

And demand for labor in the tech industry was so high a couple years ago that companies were snatching up every engineer they could while they could. Like people fighting for toilet paper at Costco.

I just don’t see how capping CEO pay would help anyone. It wouldn’t create more jobs, all it would do is make it harder for a company to attract and retain the CEO they want.

Well, thanks for that glimpse into the abyss.

 

[DonF]

Euro 1973 BMW 3.0CSi 4-Speed​

god damn thats a beautiful car, besides a couple other cars, he bought many bad looking cars

 

[Denton]

It's just basic decency to not show off your cash to an employee right before you gank them. Like do what you gotta do to get that bag, but be sensible about it like a normal adult.

If the stories about him showing off his car collection to employees before letting them go, and assuming he knew he would be letting them go at that time, are true, then indeed he is a twat. Those are big ifs though. It would require really massive level of idiocy on his part.

 

[West Texas CEO]

As a financially responsible CEO myself, I am ashamed of such acts.

 

[StueyDuck]

Lol... guys he didn't call people into his office then point at his sick new car outside and then say your fired.

People are being a bit ridiculous, he was paid that money, so what he's not allowed to spend it until after the business is gone or he's retired.

 

[lem0n]

Good taste. The 911S and old Ranger are beautiful

 

[Mr Moose]

Did he steal the money or something?

 

[poppabk]

Imagine a politician that after raising taxes is seen aboard his brand-new yacht.

It's his money, right?

You can stay within gaming - that Star Citizen guy on his brand new yacht.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I wish he spent that money on Fortnite skins instead just to piss them off even more.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

And...? The man made tens, if not hundreds, of millions by selling his Bungie shares to Sony.

Is he not allowed to spend his wealth however he sees fit now or what exactly is the point of this thread?

point is he made a bunch of money by bailing on a dying company, a company he was responsible for
fix the company's/his mistakes, or just sell and say bye-bye? he chose the later

personally, id rather have a good game studio around instead of some dudes buying cars

and as a european classic car enthusiast, he has some questionable taste

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

point is he made a bunch of money by bailing on a dying company, a company he was responsible for
fix the company's/his mistakes, or just sell and say bye-bye? he chose the later

personally, id rather have a good game studio around instead of some dudes buying cars

and as a european classic car enthusiast, he has some questionable taste

If someone knocked on my door and offered to buy my house for like 3x what it’s worth, I’d take the money.