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This is an acquisition to get Bret Taylor. I'd expect Salesforce to put him in charge of slowly improving the core salesforce tech stack.
by zaidf 10y ago
This is an acquisition to get Bret Taylor. I'd expect Salesforce to put him in charge of slowly improving the core salesforce tech stack.
- confiscate 10y agoDoesn't seem like a acqui-hire. Is it really worth hundreds of millions to buy someone?
- theGimp 10y agoSome individuals, yes. CEOs are often paid hundreds of millions of dollars, and some VP-level executives at big companies are also worth that kind of money.
- JupiterMoon 10y agoIs paid really the same as worth?
- confiscate 10y agoWhat really? I thought CEOs are paid millions, not hundreds-of-millions. I mean, if they stay at the company for decades, sure it can add up to hundreds-of-millions. But upfront? Sounds like a lot!
- rch 10y agoNot saying it happened in the case of Quip, but last year Google effectively paid $380M for Diane Greene: https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/19/google-buys-bebop-and-names-diane-greene-to-lead-enterprise-cloud-effort/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/19/google-buys-bebop-and-name...
- confiscate 10y agoOh interesting. Nice info.
- hellogoodbyeeee 10y agoIt is a little different because the bulk of their compensation is often in shares or options to buy shares. These are often structured in a way such that they are "free" money. If you have a company with a hundred million shares outstanding, you can make 500,000 new shares and only dilute the total value of the company a little but still add to an employee's net worth quite a bit.
- metafunctor 10y agoHmm. By what mechanism will Taylor be able to net billions of dollars to Salesforce in the next few years?
- duaneb 10y agoWell he helped build google maps. That's a decent example of how small teams can create large value over enough time. Another example: the original tablet at Apple was built by one guy. Sharp people can focus on good investments and generate disproportional returns, even if they didn't do the work directly.
- pb 10y agoThe right person is. How much was Steve Jobs worth to Apple? Bret is one of the most outrageously talented and productive people I've ever worked with. In a high-leverage position, such a person can be extremely valuable.
- segmondy 10y agoWhy not just hire him directly? Hey, come work for us. Here, salary of $20/mil a year, guaranteed for the next 5 years.
- huac 10y agoTheoretically, as the CEO of Quip, he has some interest in helping his coworkers cash out too.
- pb 10y agoObviously the rest of the team is likely to be very talented as well. Also, he's the founder, which includes a responsibility to act in the best interest of the company (plus $20M/yr would be much less money).
- zaidf 10y agoAlso, someone like Bret is very unlikely to be attracted by purely monetary gain like a $20/mil year salary(or even $50/mil year.) He probably cares as much, if not more, in being able to achieve some larger goal--which requires building a sort of team he has already built.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- duaneb 10y agoNothing like abandoning a company you built right as it hits its stride.
- kennywinker 10y agoThat's a good question. When Steve came back to Apple through the NeXT acquisition, he didn't come alone. He brought a team of smart devs, and a pretty awesome technology stack (Foundation, AppKit, Objective C). Now Steve was obviously the lynchpin and you probably couldn't have gotten one without the other, but I wonder hypothetically what the value of those things separated would have been. Steve alone, or team+ip alone. I suspect neither one would have been as valuable as both together.
- mpeg 10y agoAs an ex-SFDC employee, I'd be surprised if Bret is still there in 2 years. Not that there's anything wrong with it; Salesforce is a great place to work in many ways, but like many big companies they have trouble retaining key employees after acquisitions.
- nichochar 10y agoRead the article. It says that Bret and the other cofounder aren't staying. Why comment if you don't even take 5 mins to read...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- wasd 10y agoDid I miss something? "We understand that Taylor and his co-founder, ex-Googler Kevin Gibbs, will both be staying on post-acquisition."
- apapli 10y agoSalesforce are mad if they think they need to spend three quarters of a billion dollars to get a person. Everyone is replaceable. If I was a betting man this is salesforce's (necessary) response to the news from Microsoft that they are integrating the dynamics stack with office 365.
- duaneb 10y agoHow do you see that? It seems like a straightforward shot at biting into office market share at $750MM.