Folks like to rag on Bose products (and from a pure sound quality standpoint they are overpriced IMO) but Amar Bose was the best professor I had and his enthusiasm for engineering and acoustics showed in all of his lectures.<p>He's been good to MIT over the years (MIT students, faculty and affiliates get substantial discount) and this is another example of him giving back. I hope this encourages MIT to resurrect some of their acoustics programs (aside from a couple of projects coming out of the Media Lab and a telephony class or two, acoustics has been dead at MIT since the late 1990's) but I suspect they'll just use it as a cash cow.
This is an incorrect title; the wrong conclusion may have been drawn.<p>Although he has given them majority shares they are nonvoting only. The terms of.the gift forbid them from selling the shares or participating in any management or governance of the company.<p>Bose is remaining a private / independent company still run by said founder. This is essentially a gift that should pay nice stock dividends for MIT.
I was fortunate to be a student of Dr. Bose many years ago. No other professor gave unlimited time on exams, plus free Toscanini's ice cream to boot!<p>Beyond those small perks, his stories working with Norbert Wiener and his inspirations have completely transformed and shaped my personality and how I solve problems. Above all, the highest integrity one would have with his/her work, has been my #1 beacon thanks to Dr. Bose. I will always cherish that end-of-term field trip at his corporate headquarters where I witnessed amazing demos (including the active automobile suspensions), and heard even more stories that made me believe that anything is possible when you put your mind and heart into it.
Dr. Bose strongly believes that the company would have gone down a terrible path had they taken on any VC money. He had always wanted Bose Corp to focus on research, and thus all profits are poured into funding more R&D. No doubt this decision makes it possible for him to donate the majority of shares to MIT today. I still remember his words: "Those MBAs would have had me fired in no time."<p>So how did he fund the company initially? According to Dr. Bose, Lee handed over his entire life savings because he firmly believed that Bose would succeed!
What a wasteful donation. MIT has an over $8 billion endowment, and it teaches the most privileged technical students in the world. If MIT was at least trying to expand to teach more students, but of course it can't since it needs to maintain it's high selectivity in order to preserve its reputation. I can think of a thousand better donations than wasting it on rich ivy schools.
A bit of a sensational title. With all the discussion on Hacker News lately about ownership of the company, this is interesting. Gave a majority of non-voting stock to MIT to get company dividends. That is all.<p>Interesting way of donating your fortune to a school.
I attended one special lecture by Prof. Bose while at MIT. I can't remember the subject matter specifically -- something about acoustics. But I remember the feeling of the man: humble, wise, noble. This news reminds me of that feeling.
If MIT will have no voting authority under this new arrangement then I wonder what the value of actually giving the shares is. Couldn't Bose just donate all their earnings to MIT every fiscal year instead, earn a tax deduction and avoid the dividend tax that will be assessed to MIT?
this is what is called as a life well lived, you do something great that creates an impact and then the earnings are donated back to enhance your creation or somebody else's as long as innovation happens for the +ve.Too good.
I am surprised at some comments that still people have the nag to find a fault in this thing as well :)
It says Bose donated a majority of the shares. How much is Bose (private company) worth? And how much in dividends can MIT expect from Bose on an annual basis?
This is an admirable and inspiring gesture. I only hope one day I can do this for my alma mater (moreso my high school than university). Thank you Dr. Bose.
I don't understand anything about the stock market, but giving someone a large portion of stock with the agreement that it can <i>never</i> be sold seems like the wrong thing to do when people need to spend more to bring us out of a recession.