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Docker, the technology, is the poster child for containers. But it appears Docker, the business, is in trouble. In a leaked memo, Docker CEO Rob Bearden praised workers -- despite the "uncertainty [which] brings with it significant challenges" and "persevering in spite of the lack of clarity we've had these past few weeks."
Lack of clarity about what? Sources close to the company say it's simple: Docker needs more money.
Indeed, Bearden opened by saying: "We have been engaging with investors to secure more financing to continue to execute on our strategy. I wanted to share a quick update on where we stand. We are currently in active negotiations with two investors and are working through final terms. We should be able to provide you a more complete update within the next couple of weeks."
Docker has already raised $272.9 million, but the company hasn't been profitable. It's[sic] venture-capitalist supporters -- ME Cloud Ventures, Benchmark, Coatue Management, Goldman Sachs, and Greylock Partners -- which have seen it through Series E financing, can't be happy, that after almost six-years, Docker still isn't close to an IPO.
While the previous CEO, Steve Singh, promised in May 2019 that Docker would be cash-flow positive by the end of this fiscal year, that appears not to have been the case. Otherwise, Docker wouldn't need to seek additional capital.
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday October 01 2019, @10:57PM (9 children)
Hard to find financial statements for docker... best I could google up in five minutes was a crunchbase page where they've raised a quarter billion, they get about 50 million/yr in revenue, and their funding was based on being a billion dollar unicorn.
So ... depending how you run the numbers as a capital return project its not bad, returning somewhere between 5% and 20% on capital, which isn't bad.
The bad news is the articles seem to imply the revenue is a tiny fraction of total expenses, so they're losing money.
I guess their big hope was to get valued for $5B and IBM or something would buy them. Doesn't look like its gonna happen. Interesting to see what happens when they close down.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 01 2019, @11:00PM
Your pension fund may devalue your holdings (if they were stupid enough to bail out the initial investors).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 01 2019, @11:05PM (3 children)
Revenue / capital is not how you calculate ROC, it's net income / capital. On that measure, Docker is a dud. But don't worry, they will pivot and become a leading vendor of fintech... yeah, that's the ticket.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 01 2019, @11:26PM (2 children)
Yes you are correct and this is late at night for me. But, yeah, they spent a quarter B to get 50 M/yr revenue stream. Its better than some of the dotcom 1.0 companies that spent plenty of dough to get zero revenue at all, LOL. So we're not quite at April 2000 again, but gettin there soon....
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 03 2019, @08:21PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday October 03 2019, @09:28PM
Well... WeWork is a real estate management subletting company kinda like a shopping mall holding company but for office space instead of womens clothes retail.
Its somehow branded as "tech" because... they have a website. Oooh a website, in 2019, how innovative. So there are aspects of 2000 dotcom 1.0 there...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 01 2019, @11:12PM
This is what continues happening [github.com]. probably some forks too.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by qzm on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:50AM (2 children)
Revenue is not profit
50m a year in revenue while making a loss is not a good return for anyone.
They operate at a loss.
Like most of these 'startups' they hope to profit by taking investors funds, not through actual profit.
The real question is how has docker burnt quarter of a billion dollars on what is mostly open source software...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday October 02 2019, @11:09AM (1 child)
https://www.docker.com/blog/docker-at-the-grace-hopper-celebration/ [docker.com]
https://www.docker.com/blog/now-open-dockercon-us-diversity-scholarship/ [docker.com]
It seems "creating and fostering diverse communities" is very expensive and marketing along those lines seems to indicate against a company becoming a successful unicorn.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Wednesday October 02 2019, @03:02PM
Pretty much all the big tech companies are pushing diversity.
It's easier to find talent if you go where other people aren't looking or at least it was before it was a fad. It also helps avoid the problem where you do something destined to fail but all of your workers are white guys from the suburbs of northern cali so they all share the same particular blind spot to the stupidity of their dumb idea.