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Comment by matthewowen | Hacker News Reader

why would the public have a chance to see the financial status of a privately held company?

alternatively, would you like to share your financial status with the rest of us?

I don’t want to post my own company since it can be traced to me IRL, but yeah, all tax returns are public in Sweden, personal and companies alike.

Here is Spotify’s financials from its inception to today:

https://www.allabolag.se/5567037485/spotify-ab

You can find the same data for all companies.

Spotify is publicly traded. Do you have an example for a privately owned company?

Spotify didn’t go public until a few years ago, but sure, I get your point.

Here’s Delaval, privately owned maker of milking robots:

https://www.allabolag.se/5560123928/delaval-international-ab

Buffer is one example: https://buffer.baremetrics.com/

More importantly, why should all financials be public? I think this could be something that made more sense before the internet age; before all such information was searchable so easily. Why is how you manage your finances my business? Why is how Cloudflare manages its finances my business? Unless, of course, it is applying to have every one as a potential investor, in which case it makes sense to inform every one as to its financials.

Because a large number of people in society have a legitimate interest in the financial position of a company, irrespective of whether it is private or publicly listed.

Cloudflare have around 75,000 paying customers (not to mention those on the free tier) who are dependent on their services, and would probably like to know if they’re about to go bust.

As would their employees, suppliers, private shareholders, creditors, etc.

Then this sounds like a contractual issue between Cloudflare and such people. I don't see why financials have to be publicly available for this to happen. In any case, it is rare that a company goes under with no warning. Even if it's not "public information", it's usually evident if it's seriously strapped for cash.

Contractual assurances aren’t going to help you when a company is insolvent.

Correct, but you take a risk when doing business with any company. You find ones of good repute, you meet with representatives. Usually, it's noticeable if a company is really struggling. It is not the job of the state to make business transactions risk-free, only to provide courts for the adjudication of fraud and breach of contract.

Private companies in the UK file accounts publicly every year. It's an exchange for creating a legal concept that allows someone to absolve themselves of any liability for their company's obligations. I know companies in Germany do the same too.

Link to the service: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Cloudflare: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08778322

Wow, they were almost struck off last year

Interestingly, in Norway citizens' tax forms are public, so you can see what anyone's salary etc is

Not surprising that this is the case in Sweden and Norway, but not in the US, Australia, etc. Aside from the fact that obviously billionaires and corporations don't want the public seeing how they avoid tax, sometimes I suspect that the culture of keeping our salaries secret was deliberately created by the 1% to keep wages low.

“I suspect that the culture of keeping our salaries secret was deliberately created by the 1% to keep wages low.”

I often exchange salaries with people and one thing I have noticed that the people who were against transparency because they thought they had negotiated well often turned out to be at the lower range. Usually after exchanging salaries it turned out that a lot of people had been blatantly lied at by management. It’s much easier to negotiate if you really know what the common numbers are.

Not surprising that this is the case in tiny homogeneous affluent countries, but not in large, diverse ones. Sure.

Norway isn't nearly as homogeneous as it used to be - it's really quite multi-cultural these days.

Did some research based on your comment - I was surprised to learn that 13% of Norwegian population are now immigrants. It also looks like the vast majority of population growth (1%/year) comes from immigration.

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