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In a competitive market, when you outsource, you get immediate costs savings

Isn't that just a different phrasing of what the article means by "in the longer term, [shareholders] are not strategically interested in the company, because if the company doesn’t do well, they will invest in another company. And so a lot of this stuff is actually driven by shareholders and consultancies"? Or are you arguing that it is competition that drives outsourcing, not public ownership?

the R&D for big tech projects simply cannot happen without external intervention or external funding

I think you may have a point there: the KPN Neherlab mentioned in the article never was KPN's. It was part of PTT, the Dutch national post & telecommunications service. PTT was rebranded KPN when it was privatized, and KPN subsequently closed the Neherlab.




I meant that selling a gadget at +10% price compared to competition will immediately tank sales - unless there is a tangible benefit to in-house dev as well as the customer being aware of this benefit. This is regardless of whether the company is public or not.




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