This happens all the time. Some former companies were 'acquired' this way. Portal Player and Transmeta for example. In Transmeta's case, they were acquired for

This happens all the time. Some former companies were 'acquired' this way. Portal Player and Transmeta for example. In Transmeta's case, they were acquired for $255M in cash, and Transmeta had $255M in cash. The only cost to the acquirer (in this case Intellectual Ventures) were salaries till the deal closed and executive golden parachutes - totaling about $11M.