[coverband]

A couple of data points of relevance:

* Axios revenue for 2022 projected to be $100 million, up from $85M in 2021

* WP revenue in 2012, last year before its sale was $4.01 billion, down from $4.13B of prior year. However, this includes all WP Co. properties, not just the newspaper.

* Axios staff: ~60. WP staff: ~3,000

[swyx]

sorry but no way was the relevant revenue number $4b when the asset sold for $250m. unless it was bleeding money, that fails the sniff test.

https://www.vox.com/2016/6/28/12050416/jeff-bezos-saving-was...

> . The last time total operating revenue for the paper was published, in 2012, it was $580 million; one former executive estimates today it’s probably closer to $350 million. Another Post veteran told me that Bezos said in a meeting that the company’s annual budget, currently around $500 million, will have to be cut by 50 percent over the next three years.

there. better.

---

edit: jeez, the axios numbers are way off too. they had 60 people in 2018.

now it stands between 380 (https://www.comparably.com/companies/axios-media/headquarter...) and 520 (https://craft.co/axios)

[nazka]

Revenue is just one metric among many others like net income, debt, free cash flow…

You can have massive more revenues than your competitors but if you lose a lot of money it’s still not a good business.

[swyx]

oh wow, you have blown my mind with your incisive financial analysis

[nazka]

You know there is no need to be rude out of nowhere. From your own "incisive financial analysis" you showed me that you don't know how to evaluate the market cap of a company. There is not even anything related to DCF analysis in what you said which is basic, but just revenues and headcounts... And all this is fine I am not assuming (like you) that everybody here on HN should know these things. But unless like you I am not here to be rude and show off about stuff I don't know about, but to help people and to give a few clues about the subject if they want to dig deeper.

I think all this makes HN a whole better place...

[rchaud]

Those staff numbers look good, until you realize how many more people will be required to grow their revenue to where WP is.

[texasbigdata]

The investors (generally, abstracting here) in mature-ish assets want a 20%+ gross IRR they can transact on and actually exit so they can return $ to their LPs and therefore get their fat bonuses. Aspiring to reach some arbitrary milestone is likely not on their radar; just doubling revenue might get them there.