What happens after Yahoo acquires you • Hacker News Board

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#11

Post by hsmyers » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:25 PM UTC

gamble wrote: post #5

This article is mistitled. It should read 'What happens after anyone acquires you'. These anecdotes will sound familiar to many people who have been through an acquisition. Acquisitions are not something any company is naturally good at, and they inherently threaten the bureaucracy of the acquirer. Despite good intentions, the corporate immune system usually kills off the interloper before it becomes established. Not…

Not always. When Northrop Grumman bought TRW they did not realize that they were acquiring a new CEO in the process!

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#12

Post by bengebre » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:27 PM UTC

It kinda makes you long for the days where the exit was a speculative IPO. At least some of the resources went to founders that way and they often retained a sizable chunk of equity (i.e. control of the product).

Related (Why Ten Million Dollar IPOs Matter): http://www.urgentspeed.com/applied_disruption/2010/04/why-te...

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#13

Post by kenjackson » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:31 PM UTC

So why does Yahoo buy these properties? While I'm sure we'd all like to think the decision makers at Yahoo since day 1 were all idiots who like to spend millions of dollars on companies and then let them die, but is there actually a rational reason?

Were they trying to keep them out of the hands of Google? Did they do it purely for the eyeballs and thought with no additional spending they'd get their money back out of the property in X months?

I just find it hard to believe they'd do the same thing over and over again for no reason, but to lose money.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#14

Post by jfm3 » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:33 PM UTC

vegashacker wrote: post #8

I'm surprised this is a common scenario. I would think, due to the pervasiveness of the sunk-cost fallacy, that companies would stand behind their aquisitions to a fault even--just cause they spent so much money on them.

A buyer might think they're buying your users, or your technology. In either case, the possibility that these things can become devalued if not further invested in might (wrongly) never enter the thinking. If you don't change anything, how could the value of a user or a technology depreciate? (This is obviously wrong, I'm just trying to paint a possible line of reasoning.)

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#15

Post by neworbit » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:34 PM UTC

An awful lot of acquisitions end up this way, though. Consider the firms acquired by Amazon or Google or Microsoft. People remember IMDB and Alexa; Android and Youtube; Hotmail and Bungie... past that not so much.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#16

Post by edw519 » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:36 PM UTC

SandB0x wrote: post #6

I once witnessed the moment when the messenger from the new management team comes over to explain to the brilliant engineers who built the company up from nothing about these "timesheets" they need to fill in, and how it's "really not a big deal". You could feel something dying over the course of the conversation. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever seen, and I'm sure it's far worse if you are one o…

Is there a right way to do this?

Yes.

a. Make it a fully owned subsidiary.

b. Don't fuck with it.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#17

Post by zdw » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:37 PM UTC

SandB0x wrote: post #6

I once witnessed the moment when the messenger from the new management team comes over to explain to the brilliant engineers who built the company up from nothing about these "timesheets" they need to fill in, and how it's "really not a big deal". You could feel something dying over the course of the conversation. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever seen, and I'm sure it's far worse if you are one o…

Sure. For every requirement created by the management people, it must create a datapoint that can be measured in terms of business success, as that's what they're there to foster. Employee morale should be one of these, and an important one in terms of obtaining and retaining talent.

Changes that don't improve the business should be removed. If management can't provide improvement, management should be removed.

It's as simple as measuring effectiveness and making changes that work.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#18

Post by AlexMuir » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:40 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #13

So why does Yahoo buy these properties? While I'm sure we'd all like to think the decision makers at Yahoo since day 1 were all idiots who like to spend millions of dollars on companies and then let them die, but is there actually a rational reason? Were they trying to keep them out of the hands of Google? Did they do it purely for the eyeballs and thought with no additional spending they'd get their money back out o…

Perhaps it's exactly the same equation as VCs use. You can have 9 acquisitions that crater, as long as your tenth is a Doubleclick/Overture/Alibaba [1].

[1] Although this seems to be bombing somewhat at the moment.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#19

Post by ojbyrne » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:40 PM UTC

I think, once you're in the VC system, you have to compare an acquisition to what happens if you go through more funding rounds and lose control over your company that way. Many of the same symptoms.

Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you

#20

Post by johnrob » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 10:41 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #13

So why does Yahoo buy these properties? While I'm sure we'd all like to think the decision makers at Yahoo since day 1 were all idiots who like to spend millions of dollars on companies and then let them die, but is there actually a rational reason? Were they trying to keep them out of the hands of Google? Did they do it purely for the eyeballs and thought with no additional spending they'd get their money back out o…

I'd love to read a book/blog exposing "the mind" of the corporate acquirer, much like the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" supposedly does for the sexes.