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Strategic exit I'm guessing. I think they have been struggling to find a core product for a while now. The meebo bar was essentially a pivot after popularity of

• ChuckMcM 14y ago
  That seems likely. I doubt there was any employee participation on this exit. Google has a pretty good track record of giving 'RSU's[1] to the key employees in an acquisition which can make it worthwhile. [1] RSU - Restricted Stock Unit. Unlike a stock 'option' where there is a price per share which is set at the current market price and then is only valuable if the stock goes 'up', an RSU a convertible instrument that has a nominal face value of 1.0 share of Google Stock. However it has attached to it a scaling factor which is generally tied to performance. The scaling factor can go to 0 if performance is poor or as high as 3 if performance is stellar generally. This would be similar to an 'earnout' although its more about how the employee does at the company rather than how the acquired assets perform.
  • heretohelp 14y ago
    Meebo was about to lose most of their remaining (they'd already lost a few) key employees to better companies anyway. A Google buyout with incentives to keep the employees around was really the only way this was going to end well.