How To Lose 4.5 Billion in a Year

#1
VolnJC

VolnJC

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#1
So according to Forbes, a homeless person who finds a penny on the street is worth more than former billionaire Elizabeth Holmes?


Not long ago, Elizabeth Holmes was regarded as one of the US’s most successful female entrepreneurs, with a net worth of $4.5 billion, Forbes estimated.

Today Forbes cut that figure to zero.

Holmes’s wealth is entirely wrapped up in her 50% stake in Theranos, the medical testing start-up she founded in 2003. The privately-held company in Palo Alto became a standout for its bold attempts to revolutionize the diagnostic industry—it claimed it could test for 240 diseases from a few drops of blood—and for A-listers like Henry Kissinger and Bill Frist on its advisory board.
Forbes just cut its estimate of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes' net worth from $4.5 billion to zero
 
#5
#5
She seems like a con artist, from what I've read. Her "Edison" machine seems like a fairy tale. It's amazing her company got away with it this long.
 
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#8
#8
Probably worth more than zero.

A reminder that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, though.
 
#9
#9
hmanvolfan said:
Sucks to be her.
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Okay, so it's probably the late hour and the scotch but I read your post as "Sucks be to her" and I thought that was an interestingly poetic comment. Then I saw my mistake and was mildly disappointed.

It is precisely for these little random spices of life that I sleep too little and drink too much.
 
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#11
#11
She was way too immature and inexperienced to be in the position she was. Because she's young. I'm sure she'll be fine in the long run
 
#14
#14
txbo said:
Not with preferred stock holders getting paid first. It could be worth less than nothing.
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Agreed but I doubt every bit of her assets were company stock.

So her net worth from the company went from 4.5 to zero but we don't know about her net worth outside of the company. Presumably she owns some things (house, car, jewelry, etc.) and owes some things (mortgage, etc.)

It's a fun headline though
 
#16
#16
volinbham said:
Agreed but I doubt every bit of her assets were company stock.

So her net worth from the company went from 4.5 to zero but we don't know about her net worth outside of the company. Presumably she owns some things (house, car, jewelry, etc.) and owes some things (mortgage, etc.)

It's a fun headline though
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This. I doubt the was renting an apartment on 18th and Highland.
 
#18
#18
I thought at first this thread was about our government losing 4.5 billion in a year and then realized they lose that much in a couple of hours.
 
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#22
#22
It looks like she will finally get her just dues. Holmes was indicted yesterday by Federal prosecutors with 9 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors allege that she and her partner, Balwani, mislead investors about the capabilities of Theranos blood testing technology and defrauded them out of more than $100 million. Prosecutors also allege that the pair defrauded doctors and patients by knowingly misleading them with false advertising and marketing that their company could provide accurate and reliable health tests on just a few drops of blood from a finger prick.

I guess the moral here is: Being just another Silicon Valley start-up fraudster is one thing but you better not be endangering lives in the process. She faces decades in prison and deserves it. On a bright note for the "She Jobs wannabe" : Jennifer Lawrence will be playing her in an upcoming movie - should feed that ego very nicely.
 
#24
#24
Anybody read the book Bad Blood? Fantastic storytelling. It's amazing just how much of a "zero" the company was - there was absolutely nothing there, even less than what existed at massive frauds like Enron and WorldCom. The machine was never even close to getting off the ground, never remotely close to being able to do what they said he could do. It was "fake it til you make it" to the extreme. Much of Holmes's day-to-day running of the company consisted of her going somewhere to demonstrate the machine, being asked by somebody there if the machine could do a certain thing, her lying and saying "Yes," then coming back home to dictate to her employees that they had to make the machine do what the person was asking about.

A big red flag that nobody caught onto before it was too late - with the exception of Bill Frist, the Theranos board and investor group was filled with people with a ton of name recognition (Kissinger, the Waltons, etc.) but zero medical or healthcare experience.
 
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#25
#25
05_never_again said:
Anybody read the book Bad Blood? Fantastic storytelling. It's amazing just how much of a "zero" the company was - there was absolutely nothing there, even less than what existed at massive frauds like Enron and WorldCom. The machine was never even close to getting off the ground, never remotely close to being able to do what they said he could do. It was "fake it til you make it" to the extreme. Much of Holmes's day-to-day running of the company consisted of her going somewhere to demonstrate the machine, being asked by somebody there if the machine could do a certain thing, her lying and saying "Yes," then coming back home to dictate to her employees that they had to make the machine do what the person was asking about.

A big red flag that nobody caught onto before it was too late - with the exception of Bill Frist, the Theranos board and investor group was filled with people with a ton of name recognition (Kissinger, the Waltons, etc.) but zero medical or healthcare experience.
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Yes. John Carreyrou did some great reporting. It's a great book. What I really liked was the courage that two young people, Tyler Schultz and Erika Cheung, showed in the face of much older, wealthier and powerful people. They knew there was fraud at hand and that it could place lives at risk. They stuck to their convictions and refused to be intimidated by Balwani and Holmes and their attorneys. I love stories like that.

Elizabeth Holmes tried to treat the very specialized science of phlebotomy as if it was just another telecommunications field waiting for a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to "disrupt" it. It was dangerously arrogant. It also shows how surprisingly gullible we are as a society. We believe what the people we respect believe, without scrutiny. Some very well-accomplished people (although, with no medical training) were suckered. Frist, of course, is a world-renowned doctor.
 
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