If their ambitious goal was freedom, why did they sell to a publishing company? This is what I don't get. You make something you're passionate about… and then

If their ambitious goal was freedom, why did they sell to a publishing company? This is what I don't get. You make something you're passionate about… and then you get rid of it. Or you get bought, with the acquisition. Into, that's right, a job! Typically with superiors! Which was what you were fleeing from to start with. So was their ambition a number of digits, or was it freedom? EDIT: I've met the founders of some very high profile sales to big companies, including Google, who were incredibly miserable about doing so -- afterwards. And yet here, they are poster children for success.