is parallax a publicly traded company?

Yanroy

I realize this post might be a little off-topic for this forum, but there doesn't seem to be any forum it will fit in.· I was wondering if parallax is a publicly traded company.· My research on ameritrade would seem to suggest it isn't... if indeed it is not publicly traded, are there any plans to go public?· I'd love to buy some stock.

Paul Baker

I don't believe Parallax is a publicly traded company, and I for one want it to stay that way. Shareholders are a corrupting influence on a company, thier only concern is the bottom line and it's influence on stock value. Parallax has a corporate ethos that is at odds with that mentality. Providing the level of support Parallax does costs alot of money, notice that they have Chris, Jon, Dave and Ken on the forums at nearly every point during the day. If they were beholden to shareholders they would be under significant pressure to scale back the level of customer service they provide. I know this may sound counter-intuitive since Parallax has built it's reputation on their customer service (along with thier quality products) but when your level of support is several times that of your competitors, you can cut customer service in half and still be able to boast having the best customer service in the industry. But that isn't saying much since thier competitors have either horrible or non-existant customer service. I like thier current business model and if they go public that would be one of the first changes demanded by the shareholders.

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Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 8/2/2005 8:26:19 PM GMT

Dave Paton

Parallax is a tight-knit family company, and I'm with Paul, it should stay that way. I've been involved with two companies that went private->public, and it was never good for the customers or the employees at the time of the switch. Personally, I think public holding steals the soul of small companies, and soul is one of the things that makes Parallax so insanely great.

-dave

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This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

Paul Baker

Also shareholders would rampage when Parallax tried to do things like offer the SX prototype boards at cost. I can hear it now "Why the ___ are we selling products without making money on them?" Also bottom line pressures in niche market companies (limited number of competitors) have a tendancy to force prices upward, reduce the number of sales promotions etc. Going public would hurt customers in the short and long term.

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Yanroy

Google seems to have survived with its soul intact and made a lot of money in the process!· I think it could be done with·a minumum of changes to the company.

Paul Baker

Comparing Parallax and Google is comparing apples and oranges, when is the last time you called someone at Google for help using thier website? Google has no customer service beyond thier ad sales department, and thats only because they receive a direct and quantifiable result in the form of ad sales. Parallax when it helps a customer recieves no gaurentee that the customer will buy any more products in the future, they provide the service as a faith based gesture that you will be pleased and continue purchasing products.

Oh and I have heard of gripes from Google employees about the shift in corporate culture since going public.

I dug this up:

IPO and culture

Many people have suggested that after Google's IPO the corporate culture will not be able to stay so "fun" and focused on the future.[noparse][[/noparse]9] [noparse][[/noparse]10] The company may be required to answer to its new shareholders who may press the company to reduce employee benefits and to focus on short term advances. Also, it may be more challenging for the company to maintain a collegial atmosphere when approximately 1,000 (30%) of the employees are paper-millionaires. In a report given to potential investors, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised that the IPO would not change the company's culture. Later Mr. Page said, "We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements." So far, they appear to have been successful.

So the official line is things are still dandy at Google, but the pressure to change is there, and it will never go away. The next economic downturn (remember they went public after the market started to rebound) it will be nearly impossible for the Google executives to justify keeping the present corporate culture.

Google's corporate culture was "standard" for high tech companies during the go-go 90s, most of those companies are either out of business or bought out and restructured.

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Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 8/2/2005 8:51:04 PM GMT

Chris Savage

Paul,

·· I wanted to take a moment to say "Thanks."· Thanks for noticing that we're on here every day trying to help.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com

Ryan Clarke

I liked the company so much I took a job here....

[noparse];)[/noparse]

Ryan

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Ryan Clarke

Parallax Tech Support
rclarke@parallax.com

Paul Baker

Ah, the two guys hired for the last two Parallax IT Support slots·(over me ,·no hard feelings from me guys,). BTW, Id like to extend a congratulations to you Ryan on your new job.

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Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 8/2/2005 10:17:36 PM GMT

Jon Williams

I, too, was once a customer and am celebrating five years as a very happy employee next week.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

TD-Linux

Paul Baker said...
Chris, Jon, Dave and Ken on the forums at nearly every point during the day.

Jon replied to a PM from me within 2 minutes!

What would the point be of going public? Why? Parallax is doing fine the way they are, and going public would cause a bunch of problems, and only give Parallax more money that the Parallax people would rather have spent on quality and support. Go (private) Parallax!

Ryan Clarke

Thanks Paul-

I enjoy your sig line...I wore a shirt last week that was along a similar line...(the binary people shirt from Think Geek)

I also enjoy the Periodic Table (and Chairs) shirt. [noparse];)[/noparse]

Ryan

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Ryan Clarke

Parallax Tech Support
rclarke@parallax.com

Paul Baker

Ryan Clarke (Parallax) said...
Thanks Paul-

I enjoy your sig line...I wore a shirt last week that was along a similar line...(the binary people shirt from Think Geek)

I also enjoy the Periodic Table (and Chairs) shirt. [noparse];)[/noparse]

Ryan

I must admit the "10 types of people in the world" was the inspiration for the sig, I broke down an wrote a sig because the forums insisted including a sig even though it was blank. Originally I wrote 10+10=100, but opted for the more consise 1+1=10.

Have you seen the Periodic Table?·And yes, they actually have a sample containing Plutonium (amazingly, it is a mineral that naturally produces plutonium in a uranium/beryllium decay reaction), pretty cool.


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Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 8/3/2005 8:33:49 PM GMT

PLJack

Ryan Clarke (Parallax) said...
I liked the company so much I took a job here....

[noparse];)[/noparse]

Ryan

Can't say I blame you.
I would do the same given the chance.

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- - - PLJack - - -

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Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing left to add.
It is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.