The Hamburg startup Jimdo, which develops websites for the self-employed, has an eventful history behind it.
Doing their own thing again: Jimdo founders Fridtjof Detzner, Matthias Henze and Christian Springub (from left) Jimdo
There are wild years behind the self-employed platform Jimdo: After two waves of layoffs in 2022, CEO Matthias Henze and his two co-founders Fridtjof Detzner and Christian Springub came up with a plan – a smaller team and a new product should bring the turnaround. Jimdo shrank from 340 employees to around 240 people at business peaks during the pandemic and focused more on the product range.
With success, as Henze says in an interview with Gründerszene. “Jimdo is profitable today.” Henze is also satisfied with the current size of the company and there will be no further expansion in the foreseeable future. What Jimdo offers for the self-employed includes, in addition to the website builder, warning-proof legal texts in collaboration with Trusted Shops, a customer management system, automated business entries, social media connection, close Google Ads integration, a booking system and an online store .
It is not the first time that the Jimdo founders have bought back investor shares
Now the trio of founders is taking a remarkable step and is buying their company back from the investors. When asked, Henze did not want to provide any information about the purchase price, only this much: Each of the three founders now holds around a third of the shares. After a financing round of 25 million euros in 2015, the company finances itself from its own business; Global Founders Capital had previously joined as the first investor in 2007. A long time for startup funds, which at some point have to cash in on their investments in order to pay the capital back to their own backers.
This is not the first time that the founders have bought back an investor’s shares. The Internet provider 1&1 acquired a stake in the Hamburg company in the first few years of the company. However, from the founders’ point of view, the collaboration was difficult. “We quickly noticed that 1&1 as a company works completely differently than we do.” The Jimdo team was treated like an agency. “And that’s exactly what we never wanted to be. The whole thing almost tore the startup apart. “That’s when we knew: We have to get out of here,” is how CEO Henze once explained it on a stage.
Read too
How Jimdo freed itself from the clutches of an investor
Consequence: In 2009, Jimdo bought back the 1&1 shares. The day on which the buyback was completed was celebrated internally as “Independence Day,” said Henze. However, this cannot be compared with the current situation. The investment cycle of Spectrum Equity and the Samwer fund came to an end after nine and 17 years respectively. “The support of investors helped Jimdo a lot in crucial phases,” says Henze.
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The danger of growing US national debt explained
– 2024-05-02 06:22:50
The growth of US national debt threatens the collapse of the global financial system. According to Business Insider columnist Jennifer Sor, Washington needs to slow down the pace of borrowing to avoid serious consequences, Day.Az reports with reference to Lenta.ru.
She noted that the US national debt has already reached $34 trillion and will grow by another trillion every 100 days, which raises concerns among economists. One of them, Les Rubin, called the situation one of the world’s greatest Ponzi schemes (a form of fraud in which profits are paid to earlier investors out of funds borrowed later) and emphasized that increasing debt provokes higher inflation and lower living standards.
He explained that it is important for Washington to continue to sell its debt securities, but the current debt calls into question the ability to pay interest on it in the future. At the same time, last year there was a noticeable decline in demand for US government bonds. Boston University economist Jay Zagorski added that government debt provides a boost to the economy by accelerating hiring and wage growth. Full employment in the economy leads, in turn, to accelerated inflation, he added.
The expert also expects a decline in the standard of living of Americans. When the government has to allocate more and more funds to pay interest on the national debt, there will be less and less money left for other purposes, including social ones. Interest payments will soon become the main budget item, Zagorski concluded.
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The danger of growing US national debt explained – 2024-05-02 06:22:50
2027 Tax System Changes: Positive News from Tax Authorities Revealed
NOS news•
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John Jonker
a political commentator
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Roel Bolsius
reporter of The Hague
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John Jonker
a political commentator
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Roel Bolsius
reporter of The Hague
A new cabinet can dramatically change the tax system. After years of being forced to say ‘no’ to politicians, the message from the Tax Authorities to the establishment parties is now more positive: the computer systems can handle many changes from 2027 The insider told NOS.
This means that the negotiating parties already have more freedom of action to design new plans and prepare laws. For example, in previous forms, political parties were told that something as small as a VAT rate it could not even be changed when politicians wanted it to be. The old computer systems could not handle it.
If a new cabinet serves its full term, the year 2027 will enter the new government period. The tax authorities are confident that the computers will be ready by then. Until then, people are very involved in ICT modernization.
Supreme Court decisions on box 3
One danger is still in the air: the Supreme Court has not yet made a decision on box 3, the capital gains tax. This is expected in August and September. If these statements show that taxes were incorrectly charged in that area, a large amount of money may have to be refunded. Within the ministry, a cost item of no less than 4 billion euros is being taken into account.
In that case, the computer systems must also be changed according to how a tax on capital can be raised. This must be done by the programmers who have to work on updating the much needed computer systems.
Slack year
Will there be a delay in that case? Not, perhaps not, the message to creation, according to those involved. Even in the worst case, politicians can introduce new plans in 2027, they expect the Tax Authorities. Tax returns for the 2027 tax year must be filed in 2028; Only then do the computers have to be ready for it. So there is some chance of being able to fulfill the promise to the politicians even if there is a setback.
The Tax Authorities ask something about the creation: take it easy with new tax plans until 2027. In some areas, such as inheritance and gift tax, the systems are already reasonably up to date and changes can be implemented more easy But apart from that, the tax authorities mostly need time and space to prepare the new computer systems on time, officials told the forming parties.
Two systems
And that modernization is a good job: the old systems, which are sometimes still based on software programs from decades ago, must continue to run while a completely new system is being built. In the meantime, all political plans must be implemented in both systems and the Tax Authorities also have a big job to implement privacy legislation such as the GDPR in these outdated systems.
The Director General of the Tax Authorities joined the establishment at the end of March to explain that more and more is possible, but not everything at the same time. Through communication with officials, more information about the implementation was discussed with the creation table, those who were involved know.
2024-05-02 04:10:51
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2027 Tax System Changes: Positive News from Tax Authorities Revealed