Saying "no" is only possible if you haven't taken significant VC money yet and excercise full control over the company. Otherwise your investors will often forc

Saying "no" is only possible if you haven't taken significant VC money yet and excercise full control over the company. Otherwise your investors will often force you to say "yes" to aquisition because they want to cash out. EDIT: I think it is also highly dependent on the market you're trying to enter: if you are creating a new niche for yourself, like Uber did back in the day, then investors might be willing to take you all the way to IPO. If you try to compete with the existing market giants, like Facebook, they will chicken out, and see aquisition as only viable option ("if you can't beat them, join them").