I think Escrow is looking reasonable, but FLN overall has pumped...

I think Escrow is looking reasonable, but FLN overall has pumped a lot of money into it - so it should. Escrow is a 22-year-old company that FLN has owned for 6 years.

I don't really see any big synergies between Escrow and FLN and arguably FLN should find a private buyer for it now that they've put a new coat of paint on Escrow (the idea that Escrow should go public is idiotic - it's a $A10M p/a revenue company). They could probably sell it to EBay for a goodly sum and recoup how much they've sunk into it, giving them a warchest to go after the core FLN business. Arguably they could have done the same thing for FLN overall in 2015/2016 and had a good, crisp exit, but watch them make the same mistake with Escrow - sell it while it's growing, not stalling out.

Personally I'd love to see FLN sell off Escrow, drop the freight stuff (note how little information on how much money any of that stuff brings in, aside from a EBITDA number for Loadshift pre-acquisition) and Warrior Forum/Startcon, sack half the senior and middle management and some of that enormous legion of staff (who are there in Australia to make MB feel important), move to cheap and shitty offices again, and sink 100% focus into growing the freelancer marketplace. The company is turning into a pointless conglomerate; more the Matt Barrie Diversified Superannuation Fund as opposed to the high growth company it once was.

He also needs to hire a strong team. FLN has been Matt Barrie and the Seven Dwarfs for years. It's like one of those African countries where the Big Man makes sure there are no powerful #2 contenders. So MB has been promoting senior people from not-very-experienced FLN workers who often never have had a real job anywhere else, then getting rid of them in a few years. I don't think I've ever seen a senior technical or management role filled by someone with a good resume outside the company (the only times they get people like that are for specialty roles like accounting, legals or compliance). This would mean reducing the centralization of power with MB, and also spending serious money. But you look at the Glassdoor reviews of what it's like to work at Freelancer Sydney (filter out people who are reviewing "freelancing on Freelancer" and the obvious HR plants and suck-ups) and the picture is of a company that desperately needs grown-up, decentralized management by experts.