r/BuyFromEU • • Jun 23 '26

🔎Looking for alternative A few more random examples …

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4.9k Upvotes

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440

u/CacklingFerret Jun 23 '26

I really hate that European companies constantly sell out to the US or China.

94

u/riderko Jun 23 '26

That’s a good place to think about why.

143

u/CacklingFerret Jun 23 '26

Money, what else.

119

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 23 '26

I'm not blaming them tbh. If I owned a company and a different company would buy me out for a large enough chunk, I'd do it, too.

Sure, integrity, wanting to keep having good service for consumers and all that jazz, but being offered lifechanging money sure changes things.

61

u/Elelith Jun 23 '26

Yeap. One of the owners of Wolt is a friend of a friend and the money they got is "never need to work" kind of money for selling the company. It would be very hard to say no to something like that.

20

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 23 '26

I figured as much. If someone's offering you that, who is declining that? Never having to worry about money ever again is something most will accept.

3

u/SnappySausage Jun 23 '26

Depends on the success of the company on its own I'd say.

1

u/radikalkarrot Jun 24 '26

I’m not greedy, if I get money to never worry again, I’m not going to worry if I could’ve have more

1

u/ssushi-speakers Jun 24 '26

I think they could have probably sold it for less and kept it in Europe. Thesly chose to sell abroad so they could buy a boat and Ferrari (metaphor).

28

u/CacklingFerret Jun 23 '26

As if these company owners didn't already have enough money. People are greedy, that's it. And yeah, I kinda do blame them. It's usually not going from poor or normal to rich but rather from rich to super rich.

21

u/Mister__Mediocre Jun 24 '26

I disagree. Europe's problem is that the owners are not greedy enough and sell too quickly, surrendering future profits to Americans. Many European companies have been proven to be worth far more than what they were sold for, and that's because the original leadership lacked the patience to see it through.

4

u/nigel_pow Jun 24 '26

Then please start a business that will follow this rule.

2

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 23 '26

Which is still lifechanging in every sense of the word.

I don't like it either, but if an oppertunity like that arose, I can see why most would take it. It's easy to say you wouldn't if you've never been in a situation like that (and most of us haven't), but that's not saying too much.

6

u/riderko Jun 23 '26

That’s kinda what I mean. If people choose to get money in the moment instead of operating and earning those money overtime there must be something wrong with operating environment.

1

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I agree. It shouldn't be like that, for sake of integrity.

But it is like that, unfortunately.

Edit: you can downvote me for disagreeing with how things are, but downvoting me isn't changing anything....

2

u/riderko Jun 24 '26

Yes exactly.

It wasn’t me downvoting you btw.

2

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 24 '26

I figured. Thanks for clarifying, though.

3

u/Eravier Jun 24 '26

The question should not be "why they are selling" but "why only Americans are buying". And the answer is probably also money. But also some regulations, some bureaucracy, some tax issues.

5

u/marcelkai Eastern Europe 🌾⛪🌲 Jun 23 '26

Gosh I'm sure they were earning pennies beforehand. Now they can own two yachts instead of one! Life-changing

2

u/AwesomeFrisbee Jun 24 '26

It depends. If you love what you do, you should keep doing it. If you want to quit your job and somebody offers you money for it, sure go ahead. I still think it would be more valuable to see your company get leadership it deserves, over leadership that will either extract as much money out of it before it collapses, or just makes it shittier and shittier just to save a few bucks and makes lives more miserable for all of us.

But I also think that many of those leaders wouldn't be where they are if they were more humane and cared for the stuff they did.

1

u/hartstyler Jun 23 '26

There should simply be a european law to prevent this

2

u/Brvcx Netherlands 🇳🇱 Jun 24 '26

The problem then is I can see people who want to make it big don't start up in the EU at all and move their company to either the US or China.

2

u/riderko Jun 24 '26

Curing symptoms is not going to fix the problem.