Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Businesses Technology

Raspberry Pi is Now a Public Company (techcrunch.com) 83

An anonymous reader shares a report: Who would have thought that Raspberry Pi, the maker of the tiny, cheap, single-board computers, would become a public company? Yet, this is exactly what's happening: Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at $3.56 per share, valuing it at $689 million. Shortly after that, the company's shares jumped a nice 32% to $4.70. It means that Raspberry Pi could end up raising more than $200 million during its IPO process.

Raspberry Pi has sold 60 million units since its inception. In 2023 alone, Raspberry Pi generated $266 million in revenue and $66 million in gross profit. Raspberry Pi Ltd, the public company, is the commercial subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Foundation says it wants to make it easier for people to learn coding through a low-cost, programmable computer. It also remains the main shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Raspberry Pi is Now a Public Company

Comments Filter:
  • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:12AM (#64540661)

    I don't buy that their mission statement is at all honest; it's just a sales slogan.

    • I don't buy that their mission statement is at all honest; it's just a sales slogan.

      Describe for me in detail how any human resume doesn’t do the same, and I’ll believe you have a complaint beyond arrogant humanized clickbait bullshit.

      Don't forget for a minute the human world YOU represent. I’ll gladly take your resume in your defense.

      • I'm sorry you've decided to accept having bullshit shoveled at you as acceptable. I try to be an honest person and I dislike dishonesty.

        Telling me your company is all about making computers and programming accessible and inexpensive when past actions show that is a lie bothers me. Your rant is not going to change that.

        • That was their original mission statement if you looked at archived copies. The problem is the Pi started getting used in production by large companies and they bought them up before students and hobbyists could. The Pi company did succeed in making a cheap and open as possible single board computer.

          • That was their original mission statement if you looked at archived copies. The problem is the Pi started getting used in production by large companies and they bought them up before students and hobbyists could. The Pi company did succeed in making a cheap and open as possible single board computer.

            This. After attempting to get one for a needed project, and spending way to much time looking at unobtainum or way overpriced scalp pi's, I just bought a le-potato, and got on with life.

            I'm sure it is no longer there, but on the RPi website, they outright announced that business was their number one priority while addressing why you worn't getting one. . Which is a nice way to say that their original customers could go pound sand up their collective asses. No problem, in the world of cheap single low pow

        • I'm sorry you've decided to accept having bullshit shoveled at you as acceptable. I try to be an honest person and I dislike dishonesty.

          Telling me your company is all about making computers and programming accessible and inexpensive when past actions show that is a lie bothers me. Your rant is not going to change that.

          My rant addresses your specific complaint.

          Your retort does little but justify why Capitalism has survived among the other deadly -isms.

          No. You are in fact not sorry. Prove otherwise. Without bullshit this time.

      • by yababom ( 6840236 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:04AM (#64540791)

        I don't buy that their mission statement is at all honest; it's just a sales slogan.

        Describe for me in detail how any human resume doesn’t do the same, and I’ll believe you have a complaint beyond arrogant humanized clickbait bullshit.

        Don't forget for a minute the human world YOU represent. I’ll gladly take your resume in your defense.

        Your response to OP is just a meaningless deflection. The fact remains that it's dishonest to claim that their primary mission is to support "1. Education, 2. Non-formal learning, 3. Research" (https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/) and then intentionally exclude those markets when supplies are constrained:

        Right now we feel the right thing to do is to prioritise commercial and industrial customers – the people who need Raspberry Pis to run their businesses – we’re acutely aware that people’s livelihoods are at stake. There is currently enough supply to meet the needs of those customers. (Read to the end if you’re in this position and are struggling.) Unfortunately this comes at the cost of constrained supply for individual customer, who might be looking to buy a small number for home projects or for prototyping.

        https://www.raspberrypi.com/ne... [raspberrypi.com]

        • I don't buy that their mission statement is at all honest; it's just a sales slogan.

          Describe for me in detail how any human resume doesn’t do the same, and I’ll believe you have a complaint beyond arrogant humanized clickbait bullshit.

          Don't forget for a minute the human world YOU represent. I’ll gladly take your resume in your defense.

          Your response to OP is just a meaningless deflection. The fact remains that it's dishonest to claim that their primary mission is to support "1. Education, 2. Non-formal learning, 3. Research" (https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/) and then intentionally exclude those markets when supplies are constrained:

          Right now we feel the right thing to do is to prioritise commercial and industrial customers – the people who need Raspberry Pis to run their businesses – we’re acutely aware that people’s livelihoods are at stake. There is currently enough supply to meet the needs of those customers. (Read to the end if you’re in this position and are struggling.) Unfortunately this comes at the cost of constrained supply for individual customer, who might be looking to buy a small number for home projects or for prototyping.

          https://www.raspberrypi.com/ne... [raspberrypi.com]

          Ah, so their priority statement is still up. Trying to have it both ways, their priority is to get people started while their priority is business customers.

          Meanwhile the board I moved on to didn't have that problem, so they are my main source when I need a computer like that now. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lib... [amazon.com] Even so, there is a certain bullshit quality to their "issue" anyhow. Being alternatives exist that are quite similar, and that no one is constrained to the RPi, their "shortage" and their c

          • Ah, so their priority statement is still up.

            Their priority statement is dated and predicated with the term "right now". Since it's not April 2022 anymore it's not actually meaningful in anyway. The Raspbery pi is available for both educational and individual customers just fine.

            Holding a company to a single thing they did in the past is silly. It's no guarantee of the future. It's like all those people who thought Windows 10 would be the last windows ever, despite the fact that the person who ran that strategy left Microsoft.

            • Ah, so their priority statement is still up.

              Their priority statement is dated and predicated with the term "right now". Since it's not April 2022 anymore it's not actually meaningful in anyway. The Raspbery pi is available for both educational and individual customers just fine.

              Holding a company to a single thing they did in the past is silly. It's no guarantee of the future. It's like all those people who thought Windows 10 would be the last windows ever, despite the fact that the person who ran that strategy left Microsoft.

              Silly? A single thing? Can you tell me why I'm being silly when I can go to an alternative device that has served me well that I am being silly by not returning to the Pi?

              I had some systems I needed to set up. It wasn't a "business" but it was for a group. I couldn't get the Pi, and their website told me I wasn't a priority and others were more important. Took some time to find an alternative and vet it out. So here comes the potato.

              So I bought that nearly identical product, it worked, was inexpensive,

        • On the other hand, Raspberry Pi is a hobbyist system, not really for production. There are many alternative small board computers that do everything Raspberry Pi does, and more. The marketing focus of Raspberry Pi is on hobbies, building quick proof-of-concept devices, etc. Even better often the alternatives are using the exact chips your proposed product is going to use, or they have a board where you can socket in different chips from the vendor, making the transition from proof-of-concept to productio

        • Its also dishonest to cite a manufacturing update from COVID-riddled 2022 and hold that against any mission statement from the same company in 2024.

          That Right now was from two fucking years ago. Your “point” was manufactured, not made. Childish.

      • Ha, at one job my boss told me after a couple months that he was surprised that I was honest on my resume. He just assumed that everyone lied and expected that I would have done so also. His requirements were pretty low though...

        On the interview I made a mistake and confused OpenView (network management) with SunView (desktop gui) and incorrectly claimed to have worked with OpenView for several years. Thus technically not telling the truth during the interview, but not on the resume. Luckily I was a fas

    • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:22AM (#64540835)

      I don't buy that their mission statement is at all honest; it's just a sales slogan.

      I don't buy it either, given their recent practices. After the plague, they abandoned the people that got them where they are prioritizing business customers to the extent that the only way to get one was to buy one at big price markups from..... Business customers, usually using the scalper model to mark up prices, or buy a "kit" with maybe a power supply and a case, likewise way overpriced

      So people like myself, if I needed a small single board computer, I'd buy a libre le potato. I've moved on.

      At around the same price as the original pi, the same form factor, all in all quite similar with just a few differences.

      • Yup. In the industrial world that might want an industrial product, Raspberry Pi isn't always the first choice. So their idea that they should focus on industrial customers first seems off, since it was the hobbyists and prototypers who get Raspberry Pi off the ground.

        • Yup. In the industrial world that might want an industrial product, Raspberry Pi isn't always the first choice. So their idea that they should focus on industrial customers first seems off, since it was the hobbyists and prototypers who get Raspberry Pi off the ground.

          Yup, I kinda felt abandoned, and after finding a new and almost identical product, I just wrote the Pi off as not being a resource any more.

          And I suspect they know a lot of people have the same impression of them now.

    • In other words, exactly like all other for-profit companies in the world.

  • by blackomegax ( 807080 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:16AM (#64540669) Journal
    Let the enshitification begin!
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by olmsfam ( 1399493 )

      A company whos roots were providing affordable computing to places students and less fortunate seems the antithesis to share-holder divedends....

      • by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:34AM (#64540727)

        A company whos roots were providing affordable computing to places students and less fortunate seems the antithesis to share-holder divedends....

        A non-profit having a publicly traded for profit that can generate cash for their mission is not per see bad; as long as the non-profit is the majority shareholder they can run it as they see fit. Having a for profit lets them generate revenue from thie work rather than rely on donations, etc. while others profit.

        • Except they don't have it anymore, because they are selling off more than 50% of it, hence it becoming publicly traded.
          • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @02:23PM (#64541393)

            That's not how things works. Being publicly traded is not dependent on how much of a company is owned by one person or other company. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is still by far the majority shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd. It's publicly traded meaning the shares that have been made available (50%) can be bought and sold on a stock exchange, nothing more, nothing less.

            They very much "still have it".

            Incidentally this is also why Zuckerberg can tell virtually everyone else to fuck off when they don't like what he's doing at Meta since he owns 61% of the voting stock. That doesn't make Meta any less a publicly traded company.

          • Except they don't have it anymore, because they are selling off more than 50% of it, hence it becoming publicly traded.

            Not tealy. All a public company means it issues shares on an exchange that can be traded. The private owners cannsell as big or small stake as they want; and even issue a class of shares with no voting control on some exchanges.

    • by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:25AM (#64540707) Homepage
      I was about to write exactly this. Privately held companies can be crap as well, but there is at least a chance of long-term thinking. Publicly held companies seem doomed to short-term MBA thinking - get next quarter's numbers up, who cares if you destroy the business in the long term.
      • by e3m4n ( 947977 )
        publicly traded companies are where morals, principles, and mission statements go to die; all in the name of maximizing profits for the shareholder. It is the number one reason why things that used to be great now suck. One example is fast food. Imagine a side-by-side comparison of something you used to get in the late 80s or early 90s compared to the same product now. Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, the Whopper, etc. Shittier ingredients, smaller patties, less ingredients. When you dont eat at these places for 1
    • I think that we can have guaranteed price increases for the next versions of the product, anyway. I can't see running a profitable company on the minuscule profit margins they have to be making on their more basic boards.

    • Oh, Mr. Business Man, you say you have a "fiduciary duty" to juice the current quarter's numbers at the expense of customer satisfaction and long-term viability? More like you have a fiDOOKIEary DOODY!

      That showed HIM.

    • Well, we've lived through many, we'll survive this one as well.

    • The good news is there are dozens of drop in clones available. You can even buy RISCV boards with the same form factor if binary blob drivers bother you.

    • Pishitification :)

    • by Anonymous Coward

      EVERY PUBLIC COMPANY SUCKS

      HOW DARE you say that about my Apple! I will defend Apple to the end and fucking fight you!!!

  • by PubJeezy ( 10299395 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:19AM (#64540681)
    Becoming publicly traded is the end of the life cycle of a productive company. Most the shares will end up in the hands of a massive private equity vulture who will demand the company raise prices while cutting costs. And then the media will call them an "activist investor" as they dismantle the company and destroy the product and community around it.
    • Raspberry Pi Ltd, the public company, is the commercial subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Foundation says it wants to make it easier for people to learn coding through a low-cost, programmable computer. It also remains the main shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd.

      For now at least.

    • Most the shares will end up in the hands of a massive private equity vulture who will demand the company raise prices while cutting costs.

      They will not since most shares issued are owned by the Raspberry Pi Foundation who have a majority stake in both equity and voting. The activist investors can be told to fuck right off, just like they can at e.g. Meta where Zuckerberg owns a voting majority stake.

  • fwiw (Score:5, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:19AM (#64540683) Journal

    ...congrats to them!

    An actual company that makes stuff people like, need, use, and enjoy. And continually try to make their product(s) better and a better value with each step.

    At the opposite end of the scale, we have WeWork, Theranos, etc vastly overhyped bullshit that somehow grifts VCs into investing BILLIONS.

  • Which company? (Score:4, Informative)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:30AM (#64540723)
    The Rpi foundation has two arms... the nonprofit and the business arm. They started as a nonprofit, they still run it and they decided to spin off a business arm. An I think it's great, because the business arm can benefit the nonprofit and vice versa. In the end, they sell IMO the cheapest most supported SBC on the market. You can get cheaper chinese SBC's but you don't get the linux support, so it can be hard to work with a processor that isn't well documented.
    • The Rpi foundation has two arms... the nonprofit and the business arm. They started as a nonprofit, they still run it and they decided to spin off a business arm. An I think it's great, because the business arm can benefit the nonprofit and vice versa. In the end, they sell IMO the cheapest most supported SBC on the market. You can get cheaper chinese SBC's but you don't get the linux support, so it can be hard to work with a processor that isn't well documented.

      The problem is the business arm became the overwhelming focus, and most of us couldn't get one for quite a while because we weren't their definition of business.

      Now it was possible to get an RPi if you were willing to spend the time scrounging and were willing to pay an exorbitant price for one, usually marketed as a "kit" in order to have some claim that it wasn't scalping. My guess is those were being sold by some of the Pi's new priority customers.

      If you ask me, it was a sort of black market mode of

      • Business couldn't get Rpi's either, we needed some and a lot of 3rd party suppliers bought some to try and upsell. Don't discount the fact that everyone wanted an Rpi because they had all this free time on their hands and higher use with businesses, so there was a demand problem and supply problem. I wouldn't fault the Rpi foundation for the shortage, most everyone had a hard time sourcing components during that time to build assemblies and problems in assembling things in China.
        • Business couldn't get Rpi's either, we needed some and a lot of 3rd party suppliers bought some to try and upsell. Don't discount the fact that everyone wanted an Rpi because they had all this free time on their hands and higher use with businesses, so there was a demand problem and supply problem. I wouldn't fault the Rpi foundation for the shortage, most everyone had a hard time sourcing components during that time to build assemblies and problems in assembling things in China.

          Here's the thing though. I needed a RPi for a project. Could not get one. I could get a Le Potato. Then I go to the Raspberry Pi site and see this: "Right now we feel the right thing to do is to prioritise commercial and industrial customers – the people who need Raspberry Pis to run their businesses – we’re acutely aware that people’s livelihoods are at stake. There is currently enough supply to meet the needs of those customers. (Read to the end if you’re in this position a

          • I needed a RPi for a project. Could not get one.

            Good thing you did not need a video card. Or a new car.

            • I needed a RPi for a project. Could not get one.

              Good thing you did not need a video card. Or a new car.

              In a strange twist, I bought a new car during the plague times. Wife saw a nice Blue Cherokee, loved it, and we bought it.

      • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Note that there is a Pi equivalent that is the same form factor, and was available during the times the RPi wasn't.

        There are several fairly close approximations. I wouldn't call any of them equivalent. They typically require different libraries for GPIO, have different sets of ports, etc. For example, I considered Le Potato, but it had no DSI hardware, so I couldn't. I had to deal with some binary library blobs, so the RISC-V devices were out of the question. And so on.

        I eventually settled on Rock Pi 4B, which costs way, way more than the Raspberry Pi 4B does (and more than even the Pi 5). And annoyingly, their Po

    • they decided to spin off a business arm

      They didn't spin it off. They just made it public. The Foundation remains the majority shareholder.

    • The support for Rpi really isn't that great. Most of my posts about problems in their forums sit unanswered. Even a recent one about a kernel hang.

      I have had better support from Odroid.
      There are more bugs to be found in their Linux images, but at least there's always someone reading about them, providing workarounds, or taking action to fix them.

      Their boards are generally more powerful also, in terms of both I/O and CPU.

      Sadly, some of the other OS ports aren't that stable. HAOS on an XU4 just won't work pro

  • Expect enshittification within 2 or 3 years.

  • by chipperdog ( 169552 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:35AM (#64540733) Homepage
    In the day trader era, becoming publicly traded is usually the downfall of the company in my observation, it is no longer about long term capital investment. Maybe not with their current C-suite (or maybe will be), but future C-suite will become focused on pumping up the stock price and making every month/quarter/year look better on paper to maintain that imaginary value. Their focus will no longer be on their products and the people who use the products, and more on keeping the board and shareholders happy.

    RIP Raspberry PI and Pi Foundation.
    • "Their focus will no longer be on their products and the people who use the products"

      It never has been.

      Their mission has always been to make profit from crappy leftover SoCs.

      They have done shit design time and again, at first it was power and USB, now it's mostly just power.

    • RIP Raspberry PI and Pi Foundation.

      Sigh. Quick to declare something without understanding what is going on. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is not publicly traded. Nothing has changed for them. Their business arm Raspberry Pi Ltd is now a publicly traded company, and the Foundation is its majority shareholder.

      Just because someone used the words "public" or "IPO" doesn't meant the world has ended. The world of corporate ownership is far more complex than that.

      • Time will tell. The Pi Foundation will be greatly influenced by what the C-suites and board want to do. It won't happen immediately, but after some turnover in high ranking execs (5-10 years) the eshittification will reach critical mass to the point of no return.
  • by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @09:46AM (#64540749)
    Ironically, I would have loved to buy stock in this company, until I found out that I actually could.
  • I was always a big server guy so never had a use for the Raspberry side of the compute world; I don't get it.

    What do you use them for? Is it a hobby thing? Is there a real world role or function they serve in daily life?

    The only person I know in person into it, was doing it as a cool hobby project but that's obviously not a good sample size.

    Please explain why they exist. Serious, honest question.

    • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      They really exist for hobby/learning purposes. I got one fore my 9 year old and he turned it into a Minecraft & webserver. Useless crap, but him learning to do all the installs, configuration, and maintenance on a cheap chip is worth the investment. If the base model climbs to $400, it'll be completely useless.
    • by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:10AM (#64540809)

      I would never trust any IoT device that is full of buggy vulnerable software, connects to the manufacturer's servers, or requires me to install some dodgy app on my phone. Which is basically every IoT device on the market.

      When I need some kind of IoT functionality, I get a Raspberry Pi or similar device, install my own OS, and use software from standard repos.

    • by yababom ( 6840236 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:16AM (#64540815)

      While some attempts have been made to use these as ''desktops" the more common usage is to run services on a local network that would be a waste of power for x86 processors. See https://dietpi.com/dietpi-soft... [dietpi.com] for a easy list of software that is commonly used in this context.

      The Pi also has extra pins that allow easy connection of sensors and outputs to motor drivers, etc., so it is useful in robotics and data collection applications. Example: 3D printer controller https://www.klipper3d.org/ [klipper3d.org]

    • by ip_vjl ( 410654 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:19AM (#64540821) Homepage

      They make excellent proof-of-concept development systems. They're easy to program, have a numerous GPIO pins making it easy to interface with other sensors or specialty hardware.

      Outside of prototyping, I've seen them used as the base system for digital signage systems, to act as intermediary controllers that add networking capabilities to legacy CAM systems (3d printers, routers, plotters, etc.), and as a low cost way to build dev clusters to ensure software will behave correctly.

      In addition to the full systems (Pi3, Pi5, etc), they also produce microcontrollers (Pi Pico) so that opens up some other opportunites in developing IoT devices (in the space typically occupied by Arduino, ESP32, etc.)

    • I was always a big server guy so never had a use for the Raspberry side of the compute world; I don't get it.

      What do you use them for? Is it a hobby thing? Is there a real world role or function they serve in daily life?

      The only person I know in person into it, was doing it as a cool hobby project but that's obviously not a good sample size.

      Please explain why they exist. Serious, honest question.

      A comprehensive answer would take both more time than I'm willing to invest and more knowledge than I currently have. But I CAN point out that they are used extensively in the 3D printer world, and that a good part of that world consists of commercial 'printer farms' which churn out products that can't reasonably be made by conventional manufacturing processes.

      Additionally, the Raspberry Pi Zero is a module which provides an easy, convenient way of adding a Linux computer core to whatever design project req

    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      I have a few. One is a Falcon Pi Player that runs my holiday lights display. This could be just as "easily" done by my high-horsepower desktop, but why not unload it to a low powered device? The second one functions as a z-wave bridge/MQTT server for my Home Assistant instance. The reason for going that route was separating hardware, mainly because z-wave takes a bit to "come up" after a reboot. By isolating it to separate device I can reboot the hardware that houses HA and not have to deal with waiting

    • by c120plus ( 3825447 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @10:39AM (#64540885)

      OK, I'll bite.

      I bought my first raspberry roughly 10 years ago and it was a game changer.
      I was a total Linux Noob (being a Windows person) and previously have had
      several failed attempts to get into Linux. (These failed because the learning curve
      was too high and also I needed the main Windows PC for work.)
      With the raspberry, it clicked. I learned Linux at my speed and became quite good at it.

      Mainly because of these reasons:

      - Having the operating system on a SD card means you can easily back it up or setup your system again.You can fix a broken operating system in seconds (even as a beginner)

      - Everybody has the same hardware and they even bring their own Linux. You don't need to decide on the Linux flavor, the tutorials on how to do stuff mostly work.

      - Since everybody has the same hardware, loads of hardware extensions came to the market. And they seem to work great.

      - It uses very little power and is quiet. It's a home user you can afford to run it as a server

      - The small size makes it less threatening that running a proper Linux server. Knowing you can mess up the SD with no real pain helps a lot!

      I've used it in many real world situations, mostly as a hardware prototype and at quickly got sucked into production. I've also used it as a home server.
      It has proven to be really stable and good enough for low load situations, I still have 2016's pi running 24/7 without corrupting the 8GB SD card.

    • Wow, thank you everyone for the amazing list of Pi uses. You all rock!

      I am in awe,

  • gravy train. Shepherds pie anyone?
  • If they valued their shares at $690M and went public then that's what they collected.
    The value of the stock on the open market AFTER the initial publlic offering (IPO) doesn't mean they "made $200M" more or anything stupid like that.
    It just means that down the road, should they sell more shares, those shares will be valued at more than the IPO shares.

    If you don't understand how the stock market works, that's cool. Not many people do. But don't make up bullshit. An IPO is a company offering
    INITIAL (I of I

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      That is not how any of this works.

      When you offer shares publicly you almost never offer ALL the shares. If they sold all the shares they offered and that came to $200 million, their price valued the company at $690 million, then they sold ~30% of the shares.

  • now the Company can focus its attention on shareholders. job well done.

  • by McFortner ( 881162 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @11:05AM (#64540961)
    There is one guaranteed problem with this new, public company that we all are going to have to put up with.

    The price for Raspberry Pi boards are going to jump up in price soon so much it will make the price hikes we saw during the pandemic look like a bump in the road. The MBA bean counters have taken over and will start pushing up prices because they can, without any care of the long term effects. Customers will start walking away from the RPi as they look for a more affordable alternative. And without RPi having a object of worship like Steve Jobs was for Apple, it's not going to be pretty.
  • by msauve ( 701917 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @12:16PM (#64541107)
    >Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at $3.56 per share, valuing it at $689 million. Shortly after that, the company's shares jumped a nice 32% to $4.70. It means that Raspberry Pi could end up raising more than $200 million during its IPO process.

    Uh, no. Raspi (and/or those with private shares) got $689 million (less underwriting fees, etc.) from selling shares. That 32% jump made about $220 million for those who were able to buy shares at the offering price, not for Raspi.
  • Because now someone else owns them, kids, schools and hobbiests will shortly not be able to afford them.
  • I still have a lot of love for the project and the community but I lost interest the moment that new devices came out that require active cooling - it just seems like a line has been crossed. Many commentators are now comparing Pi devices against mini pcs, which was never the original objective (and not particularly cost-effective either, unless you've been gifted a load of other peripherals)
  • They were on the cusp about having to answer questions about their cooperation with LEO Agencies and now they get to enjoy those sweet sweet corporate protections. Come on folks, did you expect this to turn out any other way? They love bombed an entire market of hackers to get tiny fun boards that end up in things other than phones and pcs that are back doored from the get.
  • This company and its product will do nothing but get worse and more expensive.

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

Working...