Metaverse Group, and why I took stock instead of cash
I co-founded Metaverse Group to buy and operate virtual real estate at a point when almost nobody would underwrite it as real estate at all. It was sold to Tokens.com, a company listed in Toronto and New York, and the consideration was a position in the acquirer rather than cash.
That choice is the part worth writing about. Cash ends a relationship with an asset; equity continues it. It also means the outcome of the sale was not a number in a bank account but another holding to manage, with a listed price that moves in public whether or not I agree with it.
Four of my five exits were settled in the acquirer’s equity. After the fourth I stopped treating that as an accident of negotiation and started treating it as the shape of the business.
A fund cannot hold that comfortably. Its life is fixed and its LPs are owed cash on a schedule, so it is structurally forced to sell things it would rather keep. A holding company has no such clock, which is why my activity now sits inside Gord Holdings rather than a fund.
The deal mechanics, the year, the size of the position, and what you would do differently. Nothing here will be invented — three paragraphs from Michael and this page is finished.