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From: Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: rPI Goes Public
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:16:49 +0100
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On 14/06/2024 09:44, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
> Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> writes:
>> On 14/06/2024 01:21, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>> On Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:21:25 +0100, Pancho wrote:
>>>> My point was that The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity.
>>> That’s not the company that has gone public.
>>
>> The Raspberry Pi Foundation and Raspberry Pi Ltd (Or whatever it is
>> called) are intimately linked. Raspberry Pi Ltd is a subsidiary.
> 
> Raspberry Pi Holdings plc. 49% owned by the foundation if I’m reading
> the prospectus correctly.
> 

Ok, Raspberry Pi Ltd was a subsidiary until a few days ago. Up until 
that point, the Raspberry Pi foundation owned ~75% and was effectively 
in control.

>> So the Raspberry Pi Foundation now has a large share of an asset worth
>> 100s of millions. Shares that are easily convertible into cash. The
>> people who control Raspberry Pi Foundation have control over the
>> shares in Raspberry Pi Ltd.
>>
>> People who control charities have a number of ways to enrich
>> themselves. Paying themselves large salaries is one way, employee
>> share ownership schemes are another.
> 
> You can look up the salaries for the senior staff in the prospectus, if
> you want. Personally I don’t think they’re unreasonable in context.
> 

We will see what happens to the salaries now.

But, as I said, there are a number of ways to enrich themselves. Prior 
to the IPO ~15% of Raspberry Pi Limited was held by an employee trust.

>> Both of these methods are influenced by the perceived value of the
>> organisation. They will tell you they are growing the value of the
>> charity for the good of humanity, but they coincidentally get rich in
>> the process.
> 
> Personally I think the people behind the Pi deserve to get rich, they’ve
> made a product that’s both practically and socially useful.
>

Yes, someone has done a good job, I'm not sure who that is exactly. 
However, I don't think charities are appropriate vehicles for self 
enrichment. If that was their goal, they should  have formed a normal 
company.

In my experience, it is often the case that the people responsible for 
the success of a company are not the ones who control the business side, 
but the business side take more than a lions share of the profit.