What I learned getting acquired by Google • Hacker News Board

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#371

Post by adharmad » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

JSavageOne wrote: post #258

ethbr1 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a contractor, you are an FTE... just for a different (almost always much worse) company. And that arrangement exists solely so that the company whose work you're actually doing can fire you more easily or avoid legal liability.

I'm surprised this even legally flies. Seems like the legal equivalent of creating a shell company.

It is a shell company, except that it is not Google (or its equivalent) who is creating it. It is the Infosys and Cognizants (or other bodyshopping firms) of the world who create this structure to satisfy the demand created by the Googles.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#372

Post by hitekker » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

rand846633 wrote: post #181

pkilgore wrote: post #47

The tone of this is so different from the factual content it was really hard to read. Like a story about a machine that crushed your hand, and you wrote note to yourself that next time it would have crushed it faster had you sharpened the gears first.

This made me laugh so hard! I really want to know what lead up to this comment and was some llm involved?

In my experience, LLM's are bad at generating concise & witty jokes. They can randomly generate but that requires the the prompter to be a funny person to begin with.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#373

Post by bitterspeak » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:53 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #342

nitwit005 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying something, rewriting it, and abandoning it, is just squandering money. You can't change that reality by praising Google's way of doing things.

It's worse than squandering money, it's squandering people's time, effort, their lives.

The founders know of (or can easily research) Google’s track record with products and they knew the risk going into this acquisition. Probably an unpopular opinion but the time and effort was compensated as part of the acquisition.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#374

Post by lmm » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:54 PM UTC

tgma wrote: post #284

slater- wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thank you for mentioning this. i was a red badge. it was fucking demeaning. i have a lot of stories, but my favorite was when everyone on my floor got an earthquake safety kit except me. literally google didn't care if i lived or died. the expectation was that if i sucked up enough ("demonstrated my value") they MIGHT make me a real boy, like some bizarre Velveteen Rabbit fetish game. i loved watching how Google woul…

You were an adult when you took the job, weren't you? Many people are unhappy and/or quit Google's FTE employment too, and feel undervalued at Google as FTE. The employment agreement is consensual.

Working alongside someone with significantly better employment conditions than you is disproportionately unpleasant, to the point that working under objectively worse conditions feels better.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#375

Post by manicennui » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:55 PM UTC

esafak wrote: post #326

bradley13 wrote: post #260

Just to toss this out: I really wish huge companies like Google were completely prohibited from any sort of M&A activity. Buy up startups that might, someday, be competition. Absorb them and destroy their product. Sure, it's great for the people who sell their startup, but it's bad for the rest of the world, which might have benefited from the product that was assimilated into the Borg.

This is a bad idea if applied too broadly. Founders often build companies with the intention of selling them to bigger companies. Products that are intended to replace or complement one of the acquirer's products.

If most of them die or are shut down by the acquirer, why should society at large care?

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#376

Post by lmm » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:58 PM UTC

esafak wrote: post #314

hughesjj wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, these companies could always just hire outright

So if they want to trim costs and not do that it would be better if they hired no-one? It is the same with undocumented workers. Would it better if they were deported than to be denied benefits afforded to citizens?

By that logic it's always fine for companies to get around labour protections.

Yes, it would be better if they hired no-one. When your job conditions are beneath human dignity, you don't get to hire people for that job, even if that means your stock price doesn't grow quite as much and GDP is lower this year.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#377

Post by asdfman123 » Thu, Nov 09, 2023, 11:59 PM UTC

elwell wrote: post #261

asdfman123 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Another perk is that Google always seems to lease the best/coolest office real estate anywhere. Most of my time here I feel vaguely gross about how nice everything is.

> Most of my time here I feel vaguely gross about how nice everything is. Tell me more about this.

It just feels like none of this is sustainable. There's too much fat.

I feel big tech in general is looting its brands for profit, that while it's not 100% obvious yet, we're in the decline phase.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#378

Post by tynorf » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 12:00 AM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #105

asdfman123 wrote: post #33

The second passport thing is definitely true. When I'm abroad--even, recently, Buenos Aires--I have access to office space, free food, a gym, and even a music room where I can practice guitar and piano.

It's funny because later in the article he mentions the difference between Google and Amazon, and this is a huge one. At Amazon you can't even open the building next door without approval.

> At Amazon you can't even open the building next door without approval.

This is not true.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#379

Post by modeless » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 12:02 AM UTC

choppaface wrote: post #356

modeless wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody lied when we were acquired in 2016. Everyone was told ahead of time that they would be interviewed and not everyone would be hired.

For those they don’t hire, do they give a severance or other package for comp?

I don't remember exactly. I believe they got accelerated vesting with all shares converted to cash at the acquisition price. Maybe other stuff too.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#380

Post by octokatt » Fri, Nov 10, 2023, 12:05 AM UTC

bradley13 wrote: post #260

Just to toss this out: I really wish huge companies like Google were completely prohibited from any sort of M&A activity. Buy up startups that might, someday, be competition. Absorb them and destroy their product. Sure, it's great for the people who sell their startup, but it's bad for the rest of the world, which might have benefited from the product that was assimilated into the Borg.

I agree. Monopolies are great for the monopoly, but inevitably cause less competition, and thus less innovation.

It's really weird watching hackers defend the idea of monopolies like Google now, at the expense of FOSS. It makes me wonder if Microsoft had been spending more money publicly buying startups back in the 90's if hackers would have defended them then.