Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you have to be cruel about it, that's too bad.
Not pretending to know what happened there, but keep in mind people will make themselves cry and scream at completely inanimate objects.
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What happens after Yahoo acquires you
41–50 of 155 posts
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#42I 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…
When you are being acquired, you could say: "We're worried about loosing our culture, which has brought us the success we've seen so far. I want to agree that our group will be allowed to set its own rules to some degree in terms of working environment." And give a few examples. No need to push it or make this legally binding, or even put it in writing. Then, when the timesheet dude shows up (which they will), just s…
The flickr people were pretty good at this. I was less so.
One thing that always bugged me - when I ran Delicious, I had people submit a weekly status update (just a list of bullet points) to the entire company. That way everyone knew what was going on.
We got to Yahoo, and my boss decided to kill that.
When I got to Google, globally visible weekly status in bullet point form are part of the culture. I take this as validation.
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#43I 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…
I think most acquisitions are to get the app's users, not to get the programmers or the code. Sure, there is the typical "you don't get your $250 million until you work here for a year", but that is just to help move your code to their servers. Then you leave and do Idea 2.0 and fund it yourself so that you don't need to be acquired.
As for timesheets, all that stuff sucks, which is why you need to think of work as "making money" first and "being fun" second. If some company wants to pay me a million dollars to fill out timesheets, that's their loss, not mine. I have plenty of fun writing code at home. If I get to do a bit at work too, excellent.
(Sometimes I feel like my current job is like this. I seem to spend half my time in meetings and half my time coding. This is a massive, egregious, insane waste of money. But it's not mine, so it's not really my problem. If I didn't go to the meetings, people wouldn't think I was doing any work, and that would be my problem.)
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#44This 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…
Perhaps 'anyone but Cisco'. There is a company that has more successfully than most integrated a number of companies into its structucture. Perhaps the most amazing (for me at least) is Linksys, which I predicted would result in an epic failure and yet their market share, and competitiveness has recovered after the post acquisition noise. I'd love to hear a Cisco Exec's opinion on their secret.
I used to work for Cisco at Linksys and this is far from truth. Although Linksys operated pretty much as their own division, Cisco EOLed a lot of successful Linksys products in the SMB market since they might compete with Cisco's. Also, Linksys had and still has a stronger brand presence among consumers which Cisco resented a bit. This led to a rather long brand transition that made things pretty difficult at Linksys' end. Lastly when Linksys needed the deep pockets of Cisco for breaking into new consumer product markets, Cisco was always hesitant despite successful market research and product development on Linksys' end.
Relatively, it's been better than most acquisitions but things are definitely not that rosy.
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#45I 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…
When you are being acquired, you could say: "We're worried about loosing our culture, which has brought us the success we've seen so far. I want to agree that our group will be allowed to set its own rules to some degree in terms of working environment." And give a few examples. No need to push it or make this legally binding, or even put it in writing. Then, when the timesheet dude shows up (which they will), just s…
Trying to fight the bureaucracy from within is generally Sisyphean. You may hold out temporarily, but you make enemies in the process. Unless you can execute indefinitely without mistakes, eventually something will provide an opening for the thin end of the wedge.
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#46I can't speak to the examples from 2005 or 2007 (or any others really), but I was part of the Associated Content acquisition process and am an engineer with Yahoo now.
For our group it has been a good thing and we are happy where we are. Our group's culture is the same, we are engaged in the larger company strategy, and are excited about the upcoming year. We have had a couple integration points take longer than expected but that's what happens when you go from 50 people to a company of thousands.
YMMV I guess.
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps 'anyone but Cisco'. There is a company that has more successfully than most integrated a number of companies into its structucture. Perhaps the most amazing (for me at least) is Linksys, which I predicted would result in an epic failure and yet their market share, and competitiveness has recovered after the post acquisition noise. I'd love to hear a Cisco Exec's opinion on their secret.
I used to work for Cisco at Linksys and this is far from truth. Although Linksys operated pretty much as their own division, Cisco EOLed a lot of successful Linksys products in the SMB market since they might compete with Cisco's. Also, Linksys had and still has a stronger brand presence among consumers which Cisco resented a bit. This led to a rather long brand transition that made things pretty difficult at Linksys…
Interesting to hear from an insider. Cisco is very good at getting the media to write about how skilled they are with acquisitions. Do you think it's more marketing than reality?
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#48The article missed a pretty significant counterpoint, which I'm surprised wasn't mentioned here so far: Viaweb. As Yahoo Stores, it went to become a de-facto leader in online stores, which it's still is to this day.
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#49This 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…
Perhaps 'anyone but Cisco'. There is a company that has more successfully than most integrated a number of companies into its structucture. Perhaps the most amazing (for me at least) is Linksys, which I predicted would result in an epic failure and yet their market share, and competitiveness has recovered after the post acquisition noise. I'd love to hear a Cisco Exec's opinion on their secret.
[deleted]
Re: What happens after Yahoo acquires you
#50I 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…
Why not just do the time-sheets?