They were probably worth much more than $400M before the failure so it was a good investment opportunity. They would have been a money printing machine aside from this one major fuckup.

Their IP (proprietary trading algos) etc were probably worth a lot at the time.

These days probably not so. I wouldn't imagine there are any market makers left in NYSE and NASDAQ who aren't deploying FPGAs to gain a speed edge.

It wasn't a bailout, it was investment money.

Bailout could imply government throwing a lifeguard

> It wasn't a bailout, it was investment money.

Almost all bailouts are investments, whether it's a government or private bailout.

The investments are questionable sometimes, but they're still investments.

The nuance is a) what happens to existing equity stakeholders and b) does the bailout have to be repaid.

If the answer is nothing and no, then it’s a bailout philosophically. If the existing investors get diluted then they’re in part paying for the new capital injection.

It wasn’t a bail out, it was an opportunity for investors to get great terms on equity at a crucial juncture for the company.

A government bail out isn't the exclusive use of the phrase "bail out", it was both a bail out and an opportunity for investors to get great terms on equity.