Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup

Corporate restructuring & asset sale mechanics

• Many see this as a routine asset sale / restart: new company buys assets (IP, code, brand) and hires staff from the old one.
• Key benefit: assets move without liabilities. OldCo can go bankrupt or wind down, paying creditors with sale proceeds, while NewCo starts “clean.”
• A “clean cap table” is highlighted as crucial: new investors avoid old preferred stacks, messy ownership, or “zombie company” dynamics.
• Some argue it’s often the only way to attract new capital; otherwise the old company simply dies and investors get zero.

Fairness to existing investors & creditors

• Skepticism that old investors are being “hosed” so new investors get better terms; concern that a majority shareholder can approve deals that disadvantage smaller investors.
• Counterpoint: asset sales of this kind usually require investor consent; in this case “almost all” signed off, suggesting they judged the deal acceptable or at least better than nothing.
• Debate on whether it’s more ethical to take pennies on the dollar or just shut down and deliver a clean loss.
• Concerns about founders potentially insulating themselves from pain via fees, bonuses, or side arrangements, though specifics here are unclear.

Legality and liability isolation

• Discussion re: whether carving out assets to dodge liabilities is illegal. Consensus: not per se illegal, but can be challenged as a sham or “successor liability” in court.
• Creditors could sue both entities claiming unjust enrichment, but that’s costly and outcome is uncertain.

Founder track record & fundraising dynamics

• Strong criticism of the founder’s product track record post–big-tech: Sunshine viewed as poorly adopted despite ~$20M raised.
• Some express disbelief that investors keep funding repeat “failures,” comparing to other high-profile founders.
• Others explain the investor logic: failed experience still beats no experience, strong networks matter, prior fundraising is a signal, and VCs are gambling on high upside, not guaranteed success.

Product performance & user experience

• Sunshine’s core apps reportedly have very low download counts relative to capital raised; some infer they were “experiments” with minimal marketing.
• At least one user says the contacts app worked well for multi-account syncing and laments the lack of investment and future support, asking for replacements.

Media quality & AI tangents

• Several commenters mock typos and awkward phrasing in the article (e.g., “privacy concerns about privacy”), taking it as a sign of declining editorial standards.
• Debate over whether AI could or should be used to catch such errors and whether, given enough time, human writers still outperform AI on thoughtful, well-crafted pieces.