I think it is a little unfair to expect that PG should have acted 17 years ago in a way that he might do today. Today he has 17 years worth of extra experience to call upon. If I look at code I wrote 17 years ago I do not judge it by the fact that today I could do it better. At the time it was the best I could.<p>Besides, there are more reasons for selling your company than simply maximising the financial return. Maybe his partners wanted to sell, maybe he was exhausted, maybe he lost his passion for the project, maybe he valued never having to work again by selling for a certain payoff now.