>The best exit is not always a buy-out; they seem to have been doing great as an independent company. It was not a hostile takeover so maybe Bill Smith thought

>The best exit is not always a buy-out; they seem to have been doing great as an independent company. It was not a hostile takeover so maybe Bill Smith thought they had a brighter future with with Target's investment. From the article, it says that Target and Shipt have been in discussions since the summer so Bill and his team had several months to work out the terms of a friendly deal. Crunchbase says they had 3 rounds of funding.[1] If it's reasonable to guess that Bill still has at least ~30% equity left, it would translate to $160+ million payout. Maybe staying independent had more risks in his mind. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/shipt-2 https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/shipt-2