WEBVTT - Top Tech Companies of 2013 Part Two 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in test with technology with tex Stuff from half 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.000 stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.240 tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Bob and 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.880 you are rejoining us in the middle of our discussion 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.439 of the top ten tech companies to work for in 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.480 two according to Business Insiders. Yes. This was an article 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.800 that Business Insider published in the summer, often based on 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.920 a bunch of reviews from both twenty thirteen and the 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.319 tail end of twelve um. It was written by one 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.199 Megan Rose of Dickey and Um using statistics from Glassdoor 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.240 dot com YEP, which was that job search site we 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.320 talked about earlier. Let's employees leave comments about the company 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.040 they work for so that prospective employees can get an 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.120 idea of what it's like to be there before they 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.080 send it an application. Right. The ranks are on a 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.800 one to five, with one being the lowest and five 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.520 being the highest, and there's pretty stiff competition in this year. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.240 The lowest ranked in our top ten orbits was a 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.440 four point one on that scale, and the highest drank 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.160 on our on our top on on that first one 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.400 was a four point three. So the four point one 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:14.560 to four point three range. That shows you that we 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.880 we're talking serious competition. So the company that comes in 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.040 at number five is one that it's a fairly obscure 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.000 little company that maybe one or two of you have 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:26.480 heard about. Yeah, I mean, we had to do a 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:27.960 lot of research on some of these because we just 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.959 had never even heard the name before. The hardest part 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.080 about doing research on this one is it just kept 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.560 making me go to this one's thing. We're talking about Google. Yah. Yeah, 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.480 so every time I wanted to research Google, I just 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.400 got a search engine about Google. It's just I don't know, man, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.679 it's like recursive or something. No. Obviously Google, we all 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.840 are familiar with it. But it's interesting because it's one 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:55.280 of the few major, huge, enormous companies that consumers are 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.960 aware of that made this top ten list. Yeah. There, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.360 there's not the only one. But you know, a lot 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.360 of the other ones we've talked about are these enterprise 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.200 based companies that are you know, their customers are other companies. Uh. 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.040 And Google technically is as well, but it's also obviously 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.560 a search engine company. It's also a an ad company. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:17.360 That's where they get their revenue, more and more an 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.600 ad company than a search Engine company. They do have 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:21.680 a lot of products. I mean, obviously they do uh 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.239 YouTube and email and yep, they've got and then they've 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.840 got some interests that are outside of you know, the 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.600 web as well, like those weird Google X projects, the 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.360 Loon project that we talked about recently, automated cars. They've 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:40.640 got their Google X stuff that's also designed to be philanthropic, um, 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.880 you know, and obviously smartphones and things of that nature. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.600 A lot of the stuff they have Chromebook, yeah, Chrome 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:51.959 cast Um. I own most of these things. Google Glass 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.679 got one of those. Um, don't have an automated car yet. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.799 They don't seem to be willing to let me have one. 0:02:57.960 --> 0:02:59.640 They haven't called you about that yet. No, I would 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.639 love it. Strange I'm sure. I'm sure your call got 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.839 lost in the mail. Yeah, well, I'm I'm I keep on. Hey, hey, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.320 Sarah Gay, give me a call. So. Um, that would 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.440 be Saragay Sarah Gay Brand, who was the co founder 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.960 of the company along with Larry Page. Yep, yep. The 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.840 company's headquarters is in Mountain View, California. Now you may 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.120 remember that of course Page and Brand they went to 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.600 college together and at first kind of had a little 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.600 bit of a contentious relationship, kind of thought that each 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.840 one thought the other one was a jerk face. I mean, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.520 I'm putting words into their mouths. I'm just reading between 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.720 the lines based upon all the information I've ever read 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.520 about the biographies. But eventually they began to work together 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.760 and thus was Google born, and um, yeah, you know 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.760 it's a it's seen some success a little bit um 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.400 after it's I p O in two thousand four. Um, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.960 what's the stock price as of this? Were recording on 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.880 December way and so in the middle of the day 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.080 on December five, I looked at the stock price and 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.440 it was at one thousand and fifty five dollars and 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.840 nine sins per share. Not bad, No, not when you 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.080 were looking at like a share price that started in 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.600 the seventy dollar range and now is over a thousand 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:18.719 dollars per share. I mean it's it's they're doing okay. Yeah, 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.400 part part of the reasons they're doing so okay. So 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.960 so the company rating according to glass Door is four 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.120 point three on that five point scale, and their CEO 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:31.159 approval rating of Larry Pages on Page again being a 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.280 co founder. Remember before Page the CEO was Eric Schmidt. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.479 Who had, so there was some controversy about some of 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.560 the things he did and his He was very much 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.640 business oriented and Paige and Brenner considered more engineering oriented. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.920 In fact, there was a lot of questions about whether 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.200 or not Paige would be able to handle the role 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.599 of CEO effectively. Not that he didn't care about the company, 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.200 but rather that did he have the skill set necessary. Clear, really, 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.160 the company is doing very well. Yes, so I don't 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.440 think we have to shed any tears. But why why 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.560 did the company rates so high on this list? What 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.200 is it that the employees like about Google? Well, like 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.200 we talked about with the assass Institute in our first 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.000 part of this episode of this two parter um, Google 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.719 is is probably the industry leader in that workspace as 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.120 life space kind of concept. Yeah. The Google Plex, their 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.720 headquarters in Mountain View, is famous for some of the 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.120 amenities that are on campus. They make it really difficult 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.880 to not make Google working for Google your life. Yeah, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:40.839 and and I think I think that that's very much. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:42.240 I mean, you know, it's it's it's a little bit 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.040 further out, it's in the suburb. A lot of people 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.640 are commuting out there, so they eat all their meals 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.039 on campus because they are free. UM. And and you 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.359 know all kinds of work in place space and and 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.480 life space exists there. Yeah, it's you know, it benefits 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.520 Google because it keeps people at the the head quarters 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.840 more frequently, which means they're doing more work. It benefits 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.880 the employees who are getting some amazing experience and they're 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.480 working with some of the most intelligent people in that 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.920 field on a variety of projects. And if you are, 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.760 you know, taking advantage of the twenty percent time one 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.880 day all the week, you're working on something super awesome 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:20.680 that may or may not ever see the light of day. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.600 But it's definitely going to stretch you as an employee. Absolutely, um. 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.080 But you know, kind of an exchange for that, you 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.760 have to work really hard. It's one of those those 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.320 if you like it, keep up kind of things, right. Yeah, 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.560 it's one of those, uh, you know, it reminds me 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.160 of a way in a way of a college here 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.839 in Atlanta, Georgia Tech. UM. I have a lot of 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.200 friends who went to Georgia Tech. Despite the fact that 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.160 they went to Georgia Tech, they remain my friends. I 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.240 of course, I'm a graduate of the University of Georgia 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.560 and bulldogs hate the jackets. But apart from that, the 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.240 phrase I always hear is that it's it's not that 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.479 hard to get in, but it's really hard to stay 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:57.680 in because you know, you have to have a certain 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.240 level to get in, and they assume that if you 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.440 meet that level, that you are able to do everything 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.440 that is required of you, and if you're not, then 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.320 that's a problem. So it's another one of those great power, 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.400 great responsibility issues. Um. And you know, if you're able 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.160 to to keep up with it, then you could have 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.360 a really good career there according to most employees. Yeah, um. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.880 And and employees are are liking it more even than 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.480 they did last year. They they were only four point 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.560 percent last year and pages up three percent in approval. Yeah, 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:31.040 four point oh points right, sorry, excellent, thank you a 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.840 mejoric rise. Yeah, they scored four point oh and now 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.600 they're up to four point three um and other news. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.640 Recent news, in September, Google launched a spin off company 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.920 called Calico that's going to focus on health and well being, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:50.880 specifically on on on topics that relate to disease and age. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.360 Is UM like aging the actual like finding ways to 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.160 help people deal with that, and who knows with Google, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.720 maybe reverse it. Who you never know, right, like maybe 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:06.280 people who have Android phones just live longer. I'm iPhone people. 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.760 I wouldn't put it past him. And also I'm watching 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.840 and yeah, and the company also has plans for a 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.800 new office in London. Yeah, yeah, yeah office uh a 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.920 k A monolith. It's supposed to be one million square 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.760 feet in size, which is about ninety three thousand square meters. 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.600 According to what I read, it will be one of 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:34.640 the if not the largest, uh workspace acquisition of a 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.720 company in the city of London. I don't know if 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.880 you know this, Lauren, but real estate in London's a 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.280 little dear. Yeah. However, if anyone can afford to do 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.320 that kind of thing, it's Google. Yeah. No, Google definitely 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.400 has the cash. So anyway, Yeah, that's one that we're 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.920 all familiar with. The next one on the list is 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.240 one that I'm sure some of our listeners are familiar with. 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.640 Even though and I'm familiar with their product, I did 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.160 not know that they were the company that made it though. Yeah, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:04.920 and it's very much smaller. It only has about a 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.439 thousand employees worldwide. We are talking about Riot Games yea, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.480 and they came up with a specific computer game called 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.640 the League of Legends, which I have played. I have 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.640 it on my computer at home. I have not actually, 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.880 but um, but it's a it's a multiplayer battle arena. Yeah, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.439 multiplayer online battle arena game, also known as a mobile was. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.360 I was glad to finally see that spelled out because 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.160 I've heard people say mobile and I didn't know what 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.760 they meant. I listened to other podcasts and they're like, oh, 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.640 it's a great mobile Like I don't know what that 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.640 is and find and I always would forget to search 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.480 for it by the time I would, you know, get 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.120 to some place where I was able to search. So, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.760 multiplayer online battle arena game. There are a lot of 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:48.720 different versions of this, but League of Legends is a 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.280 big one. In fact, it's probably the most popular video 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.640 game in the world. Supposedly has around thirty two million 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.840 players logging in every month, making it the most popular one. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.200 So I'm not not shabby for something that was released 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.960 in two thousand nine. Yeah. Yeah, this is something that 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.560 went into development in two thousand and six was released 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.680 in two thousand nine. Really, I was not aware of 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.320 this game until maybe late last year early this year. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.440 So I was amazed they had been around that long 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:17.680 and it just was one of those things that was 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.040 gaining traction. Uh. They it is a free to play game, 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.520 so the way they generate revenue is through micro transactions, 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.240 and um, apparently they do it in such a way 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.840 where people don't feel like that's a bad thing. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:32.880 but I mean it's a really tricky thing to have 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.480 the micro transaction model work for you where gamers don't 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.440 feel like they are being taken advantage of. It's a 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.679 delicate but apparently they do it pretty well. I know 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.000 that their fans are rapid fans, you know, like that 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.760 there are entire channels online that are dedicated to showing 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.800 League of Legends games where players who are highly ranked, 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.280 like people who are are just known for being some 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.640 of the best players in the game, go up against 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.480 each other. In fact, they're even professional League of Legends players. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.959 We'll talk about that in a second. Um. Before we 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:08.839 get into that, though, let's talk a little bit about, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.080 you know, how the company is viewed. Well, okay, so 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:16.160 so the company calls calls itself a meritocracy that foster's 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:20.320 teams on the prefers action parentheses, kicking ass over process 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.520 and bureaucracy parentheses, taking names. I mean, it's it's a 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.200 company of gamers. Everyone who works their games. They are 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.240 given three d bucks to spend on games, to increase 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.199 their gaming skills and learn what else is going on 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.880 in the industry. Um, they have you know, giant show 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.880 and tell presentations with beer. And are they showing the 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.000 beer and talking about it or or its show and 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:46.160 tell presentation and beer is also provided yes, um, and uh, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.600 I mean, and and all of the kind of goofy parks, 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.600 the snacks they've got like weekly massus visits. Um, they 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.400 sponsored hackathon. I love that they have hackathons where it's 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.079 just like, all right, guys, you know, I know you've 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.080 got got crazy programming skills. We're just gonna do a 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.200 marathon session of hacking and see what people can come 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.240 up with within a given amount of time. That's always 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:08.760 if even Chris never did an episode on that, we 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.560 should totally do. Yeah. There's also there's one we can 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.840 talk about with sid Meyer that was pretty cool. Yeah. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.680 I remember watching that video. Um yeah neat um, but yeah, 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.080 I mean, it seems like a really loud really crowded 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.680 kind of culture that places a huge amount of emphasis 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.880 on playfulness and extremely hard work at the same time. 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.240 So their their company rating on this particular surveyans of 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.920 being four point four four point four you and their 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.840 CEO approval rating of Mr Brandon Beck is on yep, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.520 Mr Beck, he's one of the co founders of the company. 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:41.960 H Now, what's interesting to me is this is a 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.120 company that has only one game so far. League of 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.400 Legends is the only game that they have produced since 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.800 they started. However, it is evolving and it's and it's 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.840 obviously hugely successful, so it's not like they've been resting 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.040 on their laurels ever since they've launched it in two 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.080 thousand nine. But it's, um, it's interesting to me because 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.200 I wonder when we'll see or if we'll see another 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.640 game come out. It could be that they nurture this one. 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.240 Mostly they've got one in development. Okay. Uh. They have 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.199 what on their website what they call the Riot Manifesto, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.760 which sounds terrifying but actually actually a pretty uplifting kind 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.960 of list of of of things that they hold important, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.920 which includes player experience first. So in other words, everything 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.199 they do needs to be done with the player experience 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.320 in mind. They want to challenge convention, so just because 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.240 something has always been done a certain way doesn't mean 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.160 that that's the best way to do it. They want 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.240 to focus on talent and teams. They want to take 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.439 play seriously, which I love. This is kind of the 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.280 oxymoron type thing, and stay hungry, stay humble, Like, yeah, 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.920 we've got the most popular game in the world, but 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.560 you can't keep it together. Yeah you can't just sit 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.559 there and you know, strut around and say that, because 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.640 that's not necessarily always going to be the case. And 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.640 you've got to make sure that you are always is working, 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.120 you know, to get that next level or else people 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.080 forget about you. Their their standards are so high that 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.120 supposedly there's a really high employee turnover and you know, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.000 just just some people aren't cut out for it and 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.160 don't don't make it through. Yea, and uh, recent news 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.240 has a little bit of controversy and that. So we 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.360 talked about how there's some professional League of Legends players. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:24.080 Ryan actually employs some professional gamers and they are in 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.880 the League Championship League, which you know, seems like the 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.560 evil League of Evil to me, but the League Championship 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.440 League has people who are under salary with Riot who 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.840 are professional gamers, but part of their contracts that um, 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.280 something that got released, you know, kind of leaked to 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.840 the public recently, says that they are not supposed to 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.560 stream any other games, specifically games that are direct competitors 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.320 to League of Legends, but also some that are a 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.600 little more like like Fat Princess, things that are not direct, 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.080 um competitors, competitors. But they said that no, if you're 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.320 if you're working for us, if you're making money playing 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.360 video games for us, and that part of that is 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.960 because you're streaming this content so that people can watch it, 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.360 you are not allowed you you're not allowed to be 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.440 seen in public drinking coke. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's same, 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:12.960 same sort of approach, And so there's been some backlash 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.880 from the gaming community to this. I've seen points on 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.400 both sides of this debate. And obviously, you know, you're 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:23.080 talking about contract negotiations. That doesn't you know, mean that 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.080 that's always going to be the case. It could be 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.520 that the players are able to negotiate that to mean 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.760 less than what it says right now. So that's really 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.600 interesting though, I've never heard of any I never honestly 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.640 thought about professional gaming contracts, and although I know that 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.080 that talent in many other areas has similar retrictions placed 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.880 upon them. Yeah. Yeah, the non compete clauses where you 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.320 can't just go to someone else and work for them 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.720 while you're still under contract with another company, like classic 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:51.960 movie movie studio kind of content. Yeah. Yeah, and I 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.400 mean that's it's it's pretty common across lots of different industries, 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.000 not just with talent, but with other areas as well. 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.680 All right, so let's move on to or three. Yes, uh, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.240 this is riverbed technology. This is another one I had 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.880 to look up. Yeah, they do lots of networking applications 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.840 and traffic optimization. Yeah, for wide area networks, right, most 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.520 of their work is in wide area Yeah. So this 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.680 is stuff like it's not necessarily Internet based, although it 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.880 can be, but can be intrannet based. So if you 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.880 if you're part of a huge company that has its 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.240 own intranet where you are able to connect with all 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.000 the different parts of your company, that and that's you know, 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:30.800 it might be that there are portals out to the 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.600 Internet as well. You need to be able to manage 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.560 that intranet traffic, and depending upon your I T department, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.200 that may or may not be easy to do. So 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.840 this is a company that ends up optimizing that sort 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.320 of stuff. They have some products that you can use. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.880 Some of them are physical products that you can hook 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:51.240 up to our router that will help manage traffic so 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.680 that you don't have huge bottlenecks, so that you know 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.040 when when Finance is sending out a big data request, 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.680 it doesn't effect HR or some other department or sales 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.440 or whatever, so that you can end up having your 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:10.200 entire business operates smoothly without anyone like upsetting the Apple cart. 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.320 That's generally what they do. They ship their first product 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.359 in two thousand four. They were founded in two thousand 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.520 two in San Francisco. First product they shipped in two 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.080 thousand four, so two years for them to actually develop 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.200 a product that they could ship, and then they had 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.439 their i PO in two thousand six. Yep. So this 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.800 is another publicly traded company. Uh and uh. You know 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.280 lots of different products here, including things like machine virtualization. 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:34.679 Long time listeners of tech stuff know what that is. 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.560 That's the idea that you can create virtual machines on 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.159 a physical machine, and by doing that you can end 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.720 up reducing the number of actual physical machines you need. Um. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.000 You know, it all depends on what kind of hardware 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.040 you have, like if it's if it's sufficient to be 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.199 able to do all the work you as you're dividing 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.040 it up more and more and more, and obviously you 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.760 get you know, diminishing returns if you keep going. But 0:17:57.880 --> 0:17:59.960 it does mean that you can actually reduce the number 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.879 of servers you need if if you do it the 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.760 right way. So this company helps other companies do that also, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.159 like application acceleration, so that if you are designing apps, 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.560 this company will help optimize them so that they will 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.399 operate more quickly and smoothly, so you're not waiting forty 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.160 five minutes for something to happen that you know. So 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.159 these are you know, if you if you're describing it 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.400 as someone who is strictly a consumer, they may seem 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.960 kind of dull and mundane, but they're incredibly important. Oh yeah, yeah. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.720 And some of some of the bigger name competitors in 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.160 this industry are are stuff like US Tricks or Cisco. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.520 these are big companies that do the same sort of thing. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:44.640 So what is it about Riverbed that makes it different? Well, okay, so, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:46.440 I mean, so it's got a company rating of four 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.679 point four, which is pretty impressive, and in a CEO 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:54.400 approval rating of Mr Jerry M. Kennelly of Kennely being 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.000 one of the co founders of the company. Um, And 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.040 I mean, I don't know, Like, like what I was 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.560 reading from employees is that it sounds slightly traditional. That 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.439 people were talking a lot about a good work life 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.040 balance and having the independence to to really do their 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.920 their work. They said that it kind of straddles that line. Right. 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.920 It still feels like it's nimble from a startup kind 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.000 of perspective, but it also has some more traditional elements 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:22.920 to it too. Um. Also, they the rigid management structure 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.080 can go either way, right. You can either have that 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.959 be a benefit because it means that perhaps the company 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.480 has a very clear vision and is able to act 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:32.040 upon it and can go and do what they want 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.840 to do and what they need to do. But it 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.199 also can sometimes mean that it restricts your options as 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.840 an employee. Yeah, that sometimes upward mobility is going to 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:44.639 be difficult. So for recent news, Riverbed Technology announced that 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.560 it would implement a shareholder rights plan, which is also 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.360 known as a poison pill. I had heard this term 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.760 several times before and really wasn't entirely clear on what 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:55.600 it meant. So I actually did some digging so I 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.119 can learn, because I mean, finance world is something that 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.840 frightens and confuses me and we go back into my 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.960 corner of safety zone. So so a poison pill is interesting. 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.639 So the idea is that if you have an entity 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.680 coming into your company and buying up shares, and you 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.240 figure out that maybe this entity is trying to do 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.720 a hostile takeover where they're trying to buy up enough 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.240 shares to have controlling voting power to vote their own 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.520 applicant up to the board of directors and thus start 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.040 to make changes to the company. This is like an 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.199 economic cyanide pill. Yeah, it's well, it's kind of you know, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.679 it's they call it a poison pill because it's supposed 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:32.800 to be like the spies have in there. You know, 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:34.760 you flip your tooth up and you've got the old 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.199 sanide pill and you bite down on and you croak. 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.280 But it's not really killing off the company. Instead, what 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.440 it's meant to do is dilute the stock because what 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:45.960 what a company will do is they'll say, if any 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.280 entity buys up a certain percentage of our stock, and 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.720