S.MPOE takes strategic investor

For the past few months I had not been selling further S.MPOE shares on the open market. This is not a break from the general plan as detailed earlier this year, I still intend to slowly sell the remainder 40% of non-controlling S.MPOE interest that I currently own, during the course of the next 3 to 5 years. However, I judged that the ~10% publicly available is sufficient, and the addition of a strategic investor would be the more beneficial route for MPEx/MPOE generally.

As such starting end of April I began advertising my intention to accept such a strategic investor. Here's a sample discussionⁱ:

Apr 29 01:01:35 mircea_popescu here's what i wanted to talk to you about : i intend to take an institutional for 5 to 10%. i'm not going to announce this publicly. the idea is i have about 11-12% in general shareholder hands. i'd like to also get an entity of some sort involved. a bank, a hedge fund, a whatever it is. my strategy here is to then get a strategic partner involved next year for a 10-25% stake, but that will only be a top bank or somesuch, say jpm. and with that, s.mpoe is forever. i intend to close this by july.

[...]

May 17 18:17:36 redacted what kind of terms do you have locked down at this point?
May 17 18:19:01 mircea_popescu that the offers will be for either 5% or 10%, that i won't close for 10% unless significant premium offered, that the acquisition will be in btc with a courtesy fiat alternative and that the acquirer intends to hold long term but is not actually required to.
May 17 18:20:12 redacted same terms that we discussed last time.
May 17 18:20:34 mircea_popescu i make a specialty out of being boring.

This trade has just closed :

assbot [MPEX] [S.MPOE] 50000000 @ 0.0007725 = 38625 BTC [+]

Two major points need in my view underlining with this occasion.

I. This is the largest investment in a BTC company to date. In spite of all the talk happening on internet forums, at pointless conferences and anywhere else, Bitcoin finance begins and ends on MPEx. This is because Bitcoin is not about talking and not based on proof of talk.

II. The US interest continues to lose ground in the Bitcoin world. As explained in a previous article, a preoccupation with talk and posturing to the detriment of work and delivering is surely and rapidly ensuring the broad irrelevance of the English speaking world in the financial marketplace of tomorrow. Not that I expect anyone to give up on empty talking and start actually doing their job because of this, but at least when the Rice of tomorrow goes on the record to state that "nobody could have foreseen us becoming irrelevant within a decade" at least there will be this equivalent of the numerous reports people threw at the original Rice. After all that's what blogs are for (at least the better ones).

MPEx continues to be that company with excellent results and an excellent track record. Onwards and upwards as the boring usually say.

1. NB : This was amply disseminated. If you never heard about it the reason probably is that you're either not into Bitcoin or not an investor. [↩]