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I was there, and liked the talk. One of the questioners asked pg if the trend of Google/Facebook (and to a lesser degree, Apple/Microsoft) buying out companies
by 2arrs2ells 16y ago
I was there, and liked the talk.
One of the questioners asked pg if the trend of Google/Facebook (and to a lesser degree, Apple/Microsoft) buying out companies for $20-30 mil to get engineering talent is sustainable. pg's answer was more or less "Who knows?" but I wonder if others have additional thoughts.
To me, it seems like a terribly inefficient system. The actual promising startup idea/engineering gets thrown out. The cost per new hire is absurdly high. And it doesn't seem all that likely that a successful entrepreneur will be as successful inside a larger company (especially with a few million in his/her back pocket).
At the same time, Zuckerberg said that Facebook has been happy buying talent and is likely to accelerate the pace of acquisitions in the future... so who knows.
- tptacek 16y ago$30MM is a disaster for a VC for structural reasons, but it doesn't inherently mean "talent acquisition". Is it really the case that (say) Google is buying companies for $30MM strictly for the talent? I had a significantly smaller number in my head associated with "talent acquisition". I assume at $30MM there's a technology or line of business being purchased as well.
- 2arrs2ells 16y agoCan anyone speak to the size of the acquisitions Facebook has made? Zuckerberg said they were for talent - and I know some (friendfeed) must have pretty significant in size. Additionally, Dalton Caldwell (imeem) said that he thought Apple's lala acquisition was just for talent as well.
- tptacek 16y agoLala was effectively bought for under 5MM (they were still flush from an investment). And, like FriendFeed, that was a marquee talent acquisition.