| CEOs of pre-IPO companies rarely get pushed out? What is an investor saying if they choose to fire a CEO? Fundamentally they are saying that they misjudged the CEO... they're a poor judge of character. * CEO gets sued: bending the rules seems to be totally ok. Just another risk factor. * Company spending years in R&D: Science takes time. * CEO runs out of money: There's always an element of risk. Was an interesting play but didn't pan out, NEXT! Here's the best possible exit for a failing science based startup: * Acquisition with large dollar value in the press release based on "reaching certain technical milestones". But anyway... I think in Theranos' case the investors are still... invested. There's still a lot of money coming in from China, maybe they think someone in China will buy them for a huge chunk of change regardless? (does happen, and acquisition and investment often don't reflect how good the basic technology is). Maybe there's already a private market in Theranos shares, giving them some liquidity? Maybe they still genuinely think it's a good idea. Honestly, neither you nor I would have invested in them. But they already DID! |