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This is interesting. From a hiring perspective, I feel like I'd be a bit wary of this. It'd be great to have a team that works well together, but I'd be really

This is interesting. From a hiring perspective, I feel like I'd be a bit wary of this. It'd be great to have a team that works well together, but I'd be really afraid it would overwhelm existing company culture/process/etc and cause a clash. I think this is why a lot of acquihires fail (like, acquihired employees leaving quickly). They way the acquired team works together doesn't mesh with the way the new company works.

jtmarmon 11y ago
agreed. i imagine it could get a bit cliquey. i think it almost certainly depends on the structure of the host engineering team and also its size.
copsarebastards 11y ago
> I think this is why a lot of acquihires fail (like, acquihired employees leaving quickly). They way the acquired team works together doesn't mesh with the way the new company works. I agree that there's typically a culture clash, but I don't think it's because the acquihired team overwhelms the existing company culture/process/etc. In an acquihire, most of the workers at the acquired company suddenly are working for a company that they didn't choose to work for. That's a ridiculously bad situation to be in as a developer: we have a great deal of choice in where we work, and it's poor strategy to let someone else decide for you just because they had enough money to buy out your boss. So developers choose. And they generally choose to leave because the acquiring company is overwhelming the culture they chose to work in with a culture they didn't. This is different: everyone in this situation gets to evaluate the others and make a choice about their involvement in a business relationship. Of course there will be differences discovered after the fact that will result in both sides changing, but that isn't necessarily bad.
- gorena 11y ago
  Well, that's why they give acquihired employees a whole bunch of RSUs. I worked for a boring corporate acquihirer for a while because they were paying me the stock equivalent of my salary (which also increased) every year.
  - copsarebastards 11y ago
    But, you did leave. Paying people more doesn't fix the culture clash issue.

jtmarmon 11y ago

agreed. i imagine it could get a bit cliquey. i think it almost certainly depends on the structure of the host engineering team and also its size.

copsarebastards 11y ago

> I think this is why a lot of acquihires fail (like, acquihired employees leaving quickly). They way the acquired team works together doesn't mesh with the way the new company works. I agree that there's typically a culture clash, but I don't think it's because the acquihired team overwhelms the existing company culture/process/etc. In an acquihire, most of the workers at the acquired company suddenly are working for a company that they didn't choose to work for. That's a ridiculously bad situation to be in as a developer: we have a great deal of choice in where we work, and it's poor strategy to let someone else decide for you just because they had enough money to buy out your boss. So developers choose. And they generally choose to leave because the acquiring company is overwhelming the culture they chose to work in with a culture they didn't. This is different: everyone in this situation gets to evaluate the others and make a choice about their involvement in a business relationship. Of course there will be differences discovered after the fact that will result in both sides changing, but that isn't necessarily bad.

gorena 11y ago
Well, that's why they give acquihired employees a whole bunch of RSUs. I worked for a boring corporate acquihirer for a while because they were paying me the stock equivalent of my salary (which also increased) every year.
- copsarebastards 11y ago
  But, you did leave. Paying people more doesn't fix the culture clash issue.