Moral of the story: he could've made a handsome sum, but instead he spoke too early. Arguably, you shouldn't follow Kramer's approach to a sellout or a buyout, etc. What the title has to do with this story is that sometimes it's ok to be silent in order to observe the nature of the course of a conversation or a comments thread.
There seems to be too much chatter about HN quality lately, which by itself is fine. But, it's the petty ones (though Karmically balanced) that reminded me of this author's closing words about personal relationships that could be applied to the HN comments section - "If it doesn't make that much of a difference to you, please don't say anything."