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Chapter 26: Exit Through the Courtroom

Trivia

Opening Quote  

Of all the films and TV series I refer to in the book, John Wick is the only movie I've never seen. I saw the quote "People will provoke you until they bring out your ugly side, then play victim when you go there" on Twitter, and I looked it up because it reflected how I felt the moment I decided to go to court.

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John Wick meme

The Bell

An article on thebell.co.kr helped me understand what was going on. What happened to me wasn't personal; I was merely collateral damage in a powerplay between financial players. Once I understood this, it was easier for me to accept my fate.

Valuation History

These were the consolidated results for the period 2014-2017:
Consolidated results iText Group 2011-2014

Different accounting firms calculated the value of the company in 2019.
Valuation History iText: 2019

Eventually, I sold the remainder of my shares (18.88%) at a valuation of about €95M.
Valuation History iText: 2020

As I am no longer affiliated with iText since 2018, I don't have any recent information about the consolidated revenue of iText Group NV (Belgium), iText Software BV (Belgium), iText Software Corp. (US), and iText Software Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) together. The equity capital ("Eigen vermogen") / revenue ("Omzet") / profit ("Winst") of iText Group NV is somewhat different from the financial performance of all the companies combined, but as iText Group NV is the company that holds the IP of iText, its results are a good indication of the results of the group as a whole. Looking at the numbers that are publicly available, the company was still growing fast after I left.
iText Group financial performance overview
© 2021, openthebox.be (Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0); I made a screenshot from the app and clipped it)

Book Quotes  

  • [The lawyer of the defendant] belittled me by saying that Crescendo wanted to take the company to the next level, and although he understood that I might not agree, I couldn’t maintain that level. That hurt. I had done everything in my power to get the company to the next level, and the next. I had taken a step aside by forsaking the title of CEO, and I was willing to continue contributing to iText in any way I could. Why was this lawyer saying that I didn’t have any value for the company anymore?
  • On March 2, 2020, I signed the shareholder register, transferring the ownership of my shares to the private equity companies, Crescendo and Titan in South Korea, and Rivendell in the US.

Movie References  

The title of this chapter refers to the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop.

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The section title Penalties are coming is an obvious reference to Game of Thrones.

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Soundtrack for this Chapter  

I listen to music, but my taste in music is questionable. I've selected a handful of songs for every chapters. Sometimes, there's a link to the chapter, sometimes I just like the song.

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