Known for their explosive financial reporting and aggressive short selling, Hindenburg Research is a controversial organization that has claimed to 'uncovered corporate misconduct' across the globe. No altruist motives were behind their actions. They profited with their reports as it often caused a dramatic drop in the valuation and reputation of the offending enterprises.
The firm was founded back in 2017, growing to become a team of 11 investigators and analysts.
Hindenburg recently announced that they are closing down their short selling business.
Hindenburg Research Shutdown: The "official" reasons
Just a reference screenshot of Hindenburg Research's Nikola report.
Announced by Nate Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research, he has revealed that the outfit will no longer be operating, with the reasoning behind this move is multifaceted.
Although Nate acknowledges that the whole experience was intense at times, he now believes that he has finally found comfort with himself. Over time, he came to realize that the demands of this work came at the cost of missing out on other aspects of life, particularly the people he cares about.
He expresses his thoughts as follows:
Someone once told me that at a certain point a successful career becomes a selfish act. Early on, I felt I needed to prove some things to myself. I have now finally found some comfort with myself, probably for the first time in my life. I probably could have had it all along had I let myself, but I needed to put myself through a bit of hell first.
The intensity and focus has come at the cost of missing a lot of the rest of the world and the people I care about. I now view Hindenburg as a chapter in my life, not a central thing that defines me.
The 'other' reason
While Nate tried to show it as a personal decision to spend more quality time with family, there are other factors at play.
In Octoober'23, SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) adopted new rules to increase transparency in short selling. These new rules will go into effect from 14th Feb 2025.
So, just one month before these new rules targeting short sellers come into play, Hindenburg calls it quit.
We at It's FOSS really don't care if Hidenberg is saint or Satan or whatever the actual reason behind their decision, we are concerned with open source.
The open source twist here is that Nate announced that Hindenburg will open source Hindenburg Research's methodology, allowing anyone to access, learn from, and build upon the investigative techniques that shaped their groundbreaking work.
This will unfold over the next six months, with Nate releasing a series of materials and videos aimed at effectively educating those interested in their work. Nate mentioned that this idea has been on his mind for a while, especially considering how much interest they've had over the years in their investigative methods.
So, will we see more Hindenburg forks in six months? Only time will tell.
I do appreciate when an organization open sources its technology and knowledge before closing the doors forever. That should be the spirit, right?
