How Makate's R9.4 billion compensation for the Please Call Me idea compares to the value of the idea that created Google

Daniel Puchert

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Shameel Joosub offered Please Call Me's Makate more than Google was worth

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub offered Nkosana Kenneth Makate more for his Please Call Me idea than what Larry Page and Sergey Brin could sell Google for in 1999.

On Thursday, Vodacom and Makate continued their 16-year legal battle around compensation for the "buzzing option" idea he shared with the operator on 21 November 2000.
 
A bit of a disingenuous argument. If Vodacom settled at the time they would've paid a token amount to Makate for his idea. The fact that they didn't resulted in an objective accumulation of a share of revenue over an extended period of time with interest. That's on Vodacom, not Makate.
 
Is there going to be an article comparing the payout value to company x at time y every day? Tomorrow Bitcoin, then Ethereum, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, obviously a Multichoice comparison to hit the advertising quota.
 
A bit of a disingenuous argument. If Vodacom settled at the time they would've paid a token amount to Makate for his idea. The fact that they didn't resulted in an objective accumulation of a share of revenue over an extended period of time with interest. That's on Vodacom, not Makate.
They could have easily given him R1000 and he very likely would been happy. R1k was a decent amount of money in 2001. Now they're on the hook for billions.
 
They could have easily given him R1000 and he very likely would been happy. R1k was a decent amount of money in 2001. Now they're on the hook for billions.
Judging by his mail with REWARD in capitals, no he wouldn't have been.
 
A bit of a disingenuous argument. If Vodacom settled at the time they would've paid a token amount to Makate for his idea. The fact that they didn't resulted in an objective accumulation of a share of revenue over an extended period of time with interest. That's on Vodacom, not Makate.
The point here is that even a great idea distilled to an implementation isn't worth a fraction of what it could be until the mechanism to monetise it has been developed around it.

Alphabet's market cap is where it is today not because of Google, but because of the revolutionary advertising tech it built around the search engine to monetise it.

(Also, Makate's lawyer compared Please Call Me to Google, so we just followed that thread.)

Regarding your valid point about Vodacom choosing to fight rather than settle, there's another Big Tech example — Zuck vs the Winklevii.

The Winklevoss twins ended up with $150 million (R2.7 billion in today's rands) in cash and stock — https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/23/winklevoss-twins-end-facebook-lawsuit

And even in their case it was about more than getting paid for an idea. The Winklevosses already had some code written and had contracted Zuckerberg to build their idea.
 
Somewhat of a flawed comparison? Google is worth millions now. At some point Capitec shares were trading for R1. Ellies was worth more than when Naspers started. You get my point?
 
Somewhat of a flawed comparison? Google is worth millions now. At some point Capitec shares were trading for R1. Ellies was worth more than when Naspers started. You get my point?
I think the comparison is valid, because the Google Idea actually went somewhere. Whereas Vodacom ultimately ended up using a different competing product. It just puts Makate's contribution into perspective, it is NOT WORTH the money his is claiming.
 
I think the comparison is valid, because the Google Idea actually went somewhere. Whereas Vodacom ultimately ended up using a different competing product. It just puts Makate's contribution into perspective, it is NOT WORTH the money his is claiming.
Oh I get that. But then when Google was sold they didn't actually know that. It's only in hindsight they knew so you can't gauge true value before the time. Today we know the PCM idea was worth billions. Interesting Vodacom never made the argument of using a competing product, they tried to shift it to their ceo coming up with the one they used instead on Makate.
 
Oh I get that. But then when Google was sold they didn't actually know that. It's only in hindsight they knew so you can't gauge true value before the time. Today we know the PCM idea was worth billions. Interesting Vodacom never made the argument of using a competing product, they tried to shift it to their ceo coming up with the one they used instead on Makate.
His idea, and what was finally implemented are worlds apart.
 
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