[modoc]

How come? Honest question. Would making that information available hurt your business somehow? Don't get me wrong, my typical impulse is to play numbers very close to the vest, but I'm realizing more and more that the real risk of transparency is usually pretty low.

[patio11]

I think I probably have enough transparency-is-groovy street cred to say this: they don't owe you a number, and they don't owe you an explanation, unless you are credibly trying to buy their company. (This is the generic "you", not the specific "you" here.)

[modoc]

I'm certainly not suggesting they owe me/anyone else anything! I was just curious what their rationale was for holding back. Maybe it's a really good reason I hadn't considered.

[imp]

If they make a ton of money, then it might encourage competition. If they don't make any money, then it might be embarrassing.

[smanek]

Yes. If they aren't profitable, I would hesitate to pay them for my backups, since I might doubt they would be around N years from now.