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by tptacek 4859 days ago
FOUR HOURS. That's how much time they claim to have given LivingSocial before running the report. Horsewhip these clowns off the stage now.

It's actually even worse if underlying trend they're "reporting" on is true, because they've poisoned the well.
1 comments
dailyrorschach 4859 days ago
PrivCo looks even worse now with this additional update to CNN's story:

"I don't think the real story here is the details of the financing," Hamadeh [PrivCo CEO] said. "It's what's going to happen to the little guys, all of the merchants who are really the company's unsecured creditors, if LivingSocial goes bankrupt... You'll see that we were right in six or nine months."

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damoncali 4859 days ago
I think that's exactly right - this wouldn't be a story if PrivCo wasn't mostly right about the big picture. The big picture is one of impending doom at LS, and yes, if that comes to bear, the little guys will get nothing.

Sure, they come off as slimy (and maybe they are - I have no idea). But the details matter less than the overall story here.

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tptacek 4859 days ago
That's what PrivCo would say to defend what's happened. Like you, they'd be careful to couch the defense in terms of ideas that are hard to falsify. Of course, they got to this point in the conversation by reporting a series of material falsehoods; their initial specificity is what scored them a seat at the table. But let's ignore that they have no credibility anymore and instead entertain our own biases about what's happened.

It is especially easy to pull this off when the topic is a company we don't like.

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damoncali 4859 days ago
I can't say I disagree. They displayed some pretty aggressive, and possibly unethical tactics here. But honestly, I don't much care about their account (as it seems to be inaccurate). I do care about LivingSocial's account, which is interesting to me, and paints pretty much the same picture.
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tptacek 4859 days ago
That is the audience sentiment PrivCo is counting on.
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damoncali 4859 days ago
They're counting on me wanting to see the truth and thinking that they're scammy and unreliable? Seems like an odd strategy.
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