Good question!
The first thing we need acknowledge is that a lot of shareholders mistakenly think that they have shares of XYO, but XYO was never a company, it was a division of XY Labs (formerly XY - The Findables Company and XY - The Persistent Company). The entire process of a Reg A+ offering – or selling any shares for that matter – is very tightly controlled by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. and it's not possible to sell shares of an internal division of a company.
There simply is no such thing as shares of XYO. (Read more by clicking here.)
This was documented at the time of sale, but our 2018 Reg A+ sale was a suggested alternative for those in the U.S. who were not permitted to buy XYO tokens. A lot of people weren't familiar with the difference. Please be sure to check your shareholder documentation for more information about your holdings with us.
If you're not familiar with the changes to XY in 2019, unfortunately the company downsized a lot in May of that year. Most of the staff laid off were on the XYO marketing team. Our leadership came to a point of understanding that XYO as a product of marketing was not sustainable – XYO had to be development-forward in order to succeed.
The decision to transition XYO from a product of XY to its own non-profit foundation was carefully considered to help ensure the success of XYO as a project, and for the long-term financial success of XY. The company retained its solid, manageable product lines – including COIN and XY Findables – while designing new products to incorporate XYO tech for the benefit of XYO token holders and device users.
Meanwhile, XYO itself becoming a foundation means that it can foster education, help new developers jump into the blockchain space (as many are eager to do), and make education and open source its primary objectives.
In the most straightforward possible terms, here's what this transition means:
- XYO, as a project, has a chance to succeed and change geospatial data forever by being open source, educational, and free. It will require fostering from XY and the company's partners in XYO Foundation, but XYO Foundation has already begun some incredible open source projects.
- XY Labs has a chance to succeed by keeping its product line tight and its team focused. In addition, we can foster the growth of XYO by continuing development for the benefit of XYO token holders and people using XY's XYO-centric tech, such as BridgeX and SentinelX (Geomining Kits).
- This mutual success is much more viable in the long term if XY and XYO continue building in association, with the XY Company focused on profitability, and the XYO Foundation focused on a large-scale educational and open source project.
- Any effect on XY share value is not quantifiable on a large scale. Since XY shares are privately held and are not traded publicly on an exchange at this time, share value is calculated individually by private buyers and sellers. XY is not permitted to speculate about share value.
- This will not otherwise affect you as a shareholder because your holdings are not in the non-profit XYO Foundation, but rather the for-profit company, XY Labs.
If you are an XYO token holder, or an owner of XYO tech (such as a BridgeX, SentinelX, or Geomining Kit), please read more here about how this transition affects you.