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Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

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Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#11

Post by jack-r-abbit »

zalew wrote: post #5
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing could be that buying a team is worth more than buying a bunch of people to make a team. Not sure if that is always true.

how does buying a team actually work - when the company gets bought from the shareholders, can't the employees tell yahoo to piss off and not sign new contracts? how does the process look like?

Sure, anyone is free to not be acquired. And there is not usually any guarantee that everyone will be acquired. There is usually going to be some sort of retention bonus offered to people to stick around a few months beyond the acquisition period. But if a team is working well together (regardless if the actual product was a success or not, or the circumstances around their acquisition) and people enjoy having a job and the buyer is not a complete train wreck, many people will go with it (if nothing more than to have a job while you start looking). A good team that is used to working together can have a slight edge over a new team built from scratch.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#12

Post by jack-r-abbit »

product50 wrote: post #7
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing could be that buying a team is worth more than buying a bunch of people to make a team. Not sure if that is always true.

To be honest, they are buying failed teams as most of the acqui-hires they've done are of companies which are struggling to raise their next round.

A team that built a failed product is not the same as a failed team.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#13

Post by orky56 »

For those keeping score, this gives another win for Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, a16z, and First Round. Here's the tally for those who invested in companies that have been acquired by Y! since Mayer took over:

CrunchFund - 3 (Stamped, GoPollGo, Tumblr)

True Ventures - 3 (OnTheAir, Snip.It, Lexity)

Khosla Venture - 3 (Snip.It, Xobni, Rockmelt)

SV Angel - 3 (Snip,It, Xobni, Rockmelt)

Google Ventures - 2 (Astrid & Stamped)

Spark Capital - 2 (Tumblr & Lexity)

Jack Herrick - 2 (Qwiki & Astrid)

Greylock - 2 (Tumblr & Qwiki)

First Round Capital - 2 (Xobni & Rockmelt)

Also to note, Lexity & Jybe were founded by former Y! employees.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#14

Post by jack-r-abbit »

hga wrote: post #4
normloman wrote: post #2

Why does yahoo keep buying companies simply to acquire talent? Isn't it just easier to just post a job ad? I don't think there's a shortage of talented programmers working in social media. Someone please explain.

According to the article that this comment of mine discusses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6141238 that's the only way they've found to acquire mobile talent after treating it very badly in times past. Sounds like no matter how energetic the recruiting, people in this field aren't going to jump to them unless they have little or no choice. Key sentence fragment: " In each instance, Yahoo has locked up enginee…

But you always have a choice. Nobody can force you to be acquired... that would be slavery. The seller can require as part of the deal the buyer offer to keep a certain amount of people at a certain pay. Buyer can accept that deal or negotiate. But at the end of the day, every employee has a choice to sign the new contract or not. So anyone who got "locked up" in a 2-4 year contract did so because they felt it was a good move for them (or at least better than not having a job).

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#15

Post by droithomme »

hga wrote: post #4
normloman wrote: post #2

Why does yahoo keep buying companies simply to acquire talent? Isn't it just easier to just post a job ad? I don't think there's a shortage of talented programmers working in social media. Someone please explain.

According to the article that this comment of mine discusses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6141238 that's the only way they've found to acquire mobile talent after treating it very badly in times past. Sounds like no matter how energetic the recruiting, people in this field aren't going to jump to them unless they have little or no choice. Key sentence fragment: " In each instance, Yahoo has locked up enginee…

They could offer good work conditions and autonomy and get best of breed developers for $200,000, but they say that sort of salary is outlandish and they prefer to pay VCs several million per talent acquisition instead, claiming that makes more sense. But does it really.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#16

Post by rdouble »

droithomme wrote: post #15
hga wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article that this comment of mine discusses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6141238 that's the only way they've found to acquire mobile talent after treating it very badly in times past. Sounds like no matter how energetic the recruiting, people in this field aren't going to jump to them unless they have little or no choice. Key sentence fragment: " In each instance, Yahoo has locked up enginee…

They could offer good work conditions and autonomy and get best of breed developers for $200,000, but they say that sort of salary is outlandish and they prefer to pay VCs several million per talent acquisition instead, claiming that makes more sense. But does it really.

They couldn't do that because it would break with the valley's tradition of engineer salary price-fixing.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#17

Post by hga »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #14
hga wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article that this comment of mine discusses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6141238 that's the only way they've found to acquire mobile talent after treating it very badly in times past. Sounds like no matter how energetic the recruiting, people in this field aren't going to jump to them unless they have little or no choice. Key sentence fragment: " In each instance, Yahoo has locked up enginee…

But you always have a choice. Nobody can force you to be acquired... that would be slavery. The seller can require as part of the deal the buyer offer to keep a certain amount of people at a certain pay. Buyer can accept that deal or negotiate. But at the end of the day, every employee has a choice to sign the new contract or not. So anyone who got "locked up" in a 2-4 year contract did so because they felt it was a…

Indeed. But I'm pretty sure they got a "sign this soon or leave" offer than many chose not to refuse.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#18

Post by droithomme »

hga wrote: post #10
zalew wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does buying a team actually work - when the company gets bought from the shareholders, can't the employees tell yahoo to piss off and not sign new contracts? how does the process look like?

From the OP of this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6140982 , which mentions that " In each instance [of acquisition], Yahoo has locked up engineers with two- to four-year contracts..." , it sounds like the employees are given a 2-4 year contract to sign, or they can leave ... which would be a voluntary separation without unemployment etc.

It's an interesting point. Onerous contracts signed under duress are not valid in many jurisdictions. Threat of dismissal, the "sign this or else" ultimatum is considered duress. Also, in some countries this scenario would certainly be considered constructive dismissal. As it is though their jobs at the old company don't exist nor does that company and they have not consented to work for the new company, so this is absolutely not voluntary separation, it is dismissal, and they are absolutely entitled to unemployment.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#19

Post by caw »

hga wrote: post #4
normloman wrote: post #2

Why does yahoo keep buying companies simply to acquire talent? Isn't it just easier to just post a job ad? I don't think there's a shortage of talented programmers working in social media. Someone please explain.

According to the article that this comment of mine discusses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6141238 that's the only way they've found to acquire mobile talent after treating it very badly in times past. Sounds like no matter how energetic the recruiting, people in this field aren't going to jump to them unless they have little or no choice. Key sentence fragment: " In each instance, Yahoo has locked up enginee…

Having never been in this situation, what stops a developer from signing and doing almost no work for Y! while they ride out their contract? I feel like if they get fired they could just claim that Y! didn't want to pay them, so they fired them instead.

Re: Yahoo Has Acquired Rockmelt, Apps To Shut Down On August 31st

#20

Post by jack-r-abbit »

droithomme wrote: post #18
hga wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the OP of this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6140982 , which mentions that " In each instance [of acquisition], Yahoo has locked up engineers with two- to four-year contracts..." , it sounds like the employees are given a 2-4 year contract to sign, or they can leave ... which would be a voluntary separation without unemployment etc.

It's an interesting point. Onerous contracts signed under duress are not valid in many jurisdictions. Threat of dismissal, the "sign this or else" ultimatum is considered duress. Also, in some countries this scenario would certainly be considered constructive dismissal. As it is though their jobs at the old company don't exist nor does that company and they have not consented to work for the new company, so this is a…

But is that really a "sign this or be dismissed" threat? It seems more like a "Company X is dismissing you. We (Company Y) are offering you a job. Would you like to accept?" type of situation. Which is a lot better than a "Company X is dismissing you. We (Company Y) are not interested in you either. Good day." type of situation.
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