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Business owners seem to enjoy being acqui-hired -- not as much as selling company for a couple millions, but it's still quite good nonetheless. On the other han

by dexen 14y ago

Business owners seem to enjoy being acqui-hired -- not as much as selling company for a couple millions, but it's still quite good nonetheless. On the other hand, investors may get little, if any, of return on an acqui-hire. See article in which Michael Arrington admits openly that http://uncrunched.com/2012/08/26/investors-dont-like-acqui-hires/ http://uncrunched.com/2012/08/26/investors-dont-like-acqui-h... If an acqui-hire is failure for anybody, then it's a failure first and foremost for the investors. In his `About', Jacques states openly that he represents investors' point of view: >I do this [[verifying that what a company says it sells and owns is actually true]] work for several renowned Venture Capital firms in Europe(...)

zafriedman 14y ago
Investors shouldn't like acqui-hires unless it is an agreed upon goal in the first place. In fact, I guess that investors wouldn't appreciate any misunderstanding of goals on any level, and it seems to be an oft-cited reason for entrepreneurs losing their jobs at the behest of venture capitalists. But if I had $1 million to invest into a business, and from my experience I had a reasonable expectation that a company I'm investing in could be acqui-hired for $50 million, and we agreed upon that from the outset, then I could see myself making that deal and being happy when the result came to fruition.
- Retric 14y ago
  A lot of Acqui-hires are a choice between 98% chance of total failure vs. x% of their initial investment back. It's not a goal it's simply a way to cut their losses when the company is on their last legs.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    This is true, but as has been pointed out repeatedly, even if a company faces a 98% chance of total failure, many investors would prefer they chase the 2% chance of success rather than recovery of X% of their investments. VC investments either win or they don't; salvage isn't interesting to them.

by dexen 14y ago

zafriedman 14y ago

Investors shouldn't like acqui-hires unless it is an agreed upon goal in the first place. In fact, I guess that investors wouldn't appreciate any misunderstanding of goals on any level, and it seems to be an oft-cited reason for entrepreneurs losing their jobs at the behest of venture capitalists. But if I had $1 million to invest into a business, and from my experience I had a reasonable expectation that a company I'm investing in could be acqui-hired for $50 million, and we agreed upon that from the outset, then I could see myself making that deal and being happy when the result came to fruition.

Retric 14y ago
A lot of Acqui-hires are a choice between 98% chance of total failure vs. x% of their initial investment back. It's not a goal it's simply a way to cut their losses when the company is on their last legs.
- tptacek 14y ago
  This is true, but as has been pointed out repeatedly, even if a company faces a 98% chance of total failure, many investors would prefer they chase the 2% chance of success rather than recovery of X% of their investments. VC investments either win or they don't; salvage isn't interesting to them.