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What's the rumored price? They reportedly raised $200M. Employees get nothing, I'm guessing. Well, a secure job at Google is a decent consolation prize, at leas

What's the rumored price? They reportedly raised $200M. Employees get nothing, I'm guessing. Well, a secure job at Google is a decent consolation prize, at least.

0x5345414e 6y ago
$180M from what I read. Seems they were acquired because sales were almost non-existent and they were running out of money.
- lozaning 6y ago
  You had to show up in person to their store in Vancouver to actually buy them didn't you? IIRC the price point was on the right side of a pay-day impulse buy, but Im not going to spend the money to get to vancouver to spend that money.
Kiro 6y ago
Coming from industries where RSU and stock options are unheard of (read: most industries outside tech) "employees get nothing" seems really foreign. It's nothing I would ever expect regardless of price.
- amscanne 6y ago
  Many of these employees were likely working for below market salaries after being sold on the high potential value of their options. I'm not arguing anything about whether this is right or wrong (particularly in this case), but I believe this is also uncommon outside of tech. There are probably more analogous situations in e.g. law or sales, where you still have a clear employee relationship with the company but compensation is may not be a vanilla salary.
- dbish 6y ago
  If you're working at a startup you have (usually) taken on risk + a lower salary in exchange for ownership, so it is expected and disappointing when a sale gets nothing for employees. If they are paid market rates with stock/options not part of their compensation that would be different
andreilys 6y ago
Employees are not guaranteed employment at Google. I'm sure a good chunk will be let go as part of this acquisition.
- kevstev 6y ago
  Does that really happen? I figured that an event like this is a good excuse to clean house a bit, but it seemed to me that this was the exception rather than the rule- how common is this and what is the process by which one gets unemployed?
  - dbish 6y ago
    Chaos Monkeys talks a bit about this where they had acquisition interest but not all the founders/employees passed the interviews
- twox2 6y ago
  I'm curious how this usually plays out. Do employees of acquired companies need to go through the google interview process?
  - lowiqengineer 6y ago
    Unless they're part of leadership they usually do, yes.

What's the rumored price? They reportedly raised $200M. Employees get nothing, I'm guessing. Well, a secure job at Google is a decent consolation prize, at least.

0x5345414e 6y ago

$180M from what I read. Seems they were acquired because sales were almost non-existent and they were running out of money.

lozaning 6y ago
You had to show up in person to their store in Vancouver to actually buy them didn't you? IIRC the price point was on the right side of a pay-day impulse buy, but Im not going to spend the money to get to vancouver to spend that money.

Kiro 6y ago

Coming from industries where RSU and stock options are unheard of (read: most industries outside tech) "employees get nothing" seems really foreign. It's nothing I would ever expect regardless of price.

amscanne 6y ago
Many of these employees were likely working for below market salaries after being sold on the high potential value of their options. I'm not arguing anything about whether this is right or wrong (particularly in this case), but I believe this is also uncommon outside of tech. There are probably more analogous situations in e.g. law or sales, where you still have a clear employee relationship with the company but compensation is may not be a vanilla salary.
dbish 6y ago
If you're working at a startup you have (usually) taken on risk + a lower salary in exchange for ownership, so it is expected and disappointing when a sale gets nothing for employees. If they are paid market rates with stock/options not part of their compensation that would be different

andreilys 6y ago

Employees are not guaranteed employment at Google. I'm sure a good chunk will be let go as part of this acquisition.

kevstev 6y ago
Does that really happen? I figured that an event like this is a good excuse to clean house a bit, but it seemed to me that this was the exception rather than the rule- how common is this and what is the process by which one gets unemployed?
- dbish 6y ago
  Chaos Monkeys talks a bit about this where they had acquisition interest but not all the founders/employees passed the interviews
twox2 6y ago
I'm curious how this usually plays out. Do employees of acquired companies need to go through the google interview process?
- lowiqengineer 6y ago
  Unless they're part of leadership they usually do, yes.