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That is a failed acquihire. The whole point of an acquihire from the acquirer's point of view is that while business-unit-specific OPEX budget is used for sal
by foobiekr 6y ago
That is a failed acquihire. The whole point of an acquihire from the acquirer's point of view is that while business-unit-specific OPEX budget is used for salaries, bonuses and other overhead, retention packages and equity arrangements are generally covered by the central budget. Otherwise you would just hire people directly, possibly using special packages.
What an acquihire gets you, as an executive, is that people you otherwise wouldn't be able to hire, because you can pay above market without wrecking your budget. These people are either vesting out equity or they are on explicit retention packages, but from a budget standpoint _they aren't on you_.
Another way to think about it is that this buys you the time necessary to, using the normal levers available to you, get employees to the point where a set of overlapping RSU grants are vesting quarterly, thereby both avoiding a steep compensation cliff and getting the total compensation to where it needs to be in a way you could not do on day one.
- afterburner 6y agoAren't acquihires really about the IP?
- goseeastarwar 6y agoNo, they’re soft landings for talented people in failing businesses.
- m463 6y agoThere are very few soft landings in the Kerbal Space Program.
- dpeck 6y agoNo, then it would be an acquisition.
- foobiekr 6y agoIP, if it can be re-used, is considered a bonus at best. In practice, the IP you want is in the experience of the people you're getting, not their random patent portfolio or source code.
- babesh 6y agoIt’s only failed from the perspective of the acquirer and the employees. The founders made off. Sometimes it can still be considered a gain by the acquirer if it prevents a competitor from acquiring said talent.
- choxi 6y ago> That is a failed acquihire. The whole point of an acquihire from the acquirer's point of view is that while business-unit-specific OPEX budget is used for salaries, bonuses and other overhead, retention packages and equity arrangements are generally covered by the central budget. Otherwise you would just hire people directly, possibly using special packages. Are you saying the whole point of acquihires is essentially an accounting trick?