Facebook Acquires Drop.io • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Acquires Drop.io

#51

Post by brown9-2 » Sat, Oct 30, 2010, 3:32 PM UTC

waxman wrote: post #8

Facebook's recent talent acquisitions sort of make sense to me from Facebook's standpoint (good, entrepreneurial talent is hard to find), but I wonder how the founders, employees, users, and investors feel about these relatively odd buyouts. This drop.io deal sounds a lot like the Hot Potato acquisition from a few months ago: in both cases the startups were well-funded, but didn't have much traction, and then Faceboo…

Can anyone think of an example of one of these eight-digit "talent acquisitions" that would now be viewed as a success (several years later)?

Re: Facebook Acquires Drop.io

#52

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 30, 2010, 4:54 PM UTC

forsaken wrote: post #38

jack7890 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unreasonable for drop.io to burn $500k/mo? I run a ten-man startup and I can't fathom burning that much.

You pay people less than 50k/mo?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Acquires Drop.io

#53

Post by chollida1 » Sat, Oct 30, 2010, 6:55 PM UTC

brown9-2 wrote: post #51

waxman wrote: post #8

Facebook's recent talent acquisitions sort of make sense to me from Facebook's standpoint (good, entrepreneurial talent is hard to find), but I wonder how the founders, employees, users, and investors feel about these relatively odd buyouts. This drop.io deal sounds a lot like the Hot Potato acquisition from a few months ago: in both cases the startups were well-funded, but didn't have much traction, and then Faceboo…

Can anyone think of an example of one of these eight-digit "talent acquisitions" that would now be viewed as a success (several years later)?

That's a great question to ask. The problem is, how would you measure if an acquisition was a success?

Facebook's Friend Feed acquisition wasn't that long ago but it looks like a success; They got a new CTO out of the acquisition.

Re: Facebook Acquires Drop.io

#54

Post by ahoyhere » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 12:34 PM UTC

edash wrote: post #46

ahoyhere wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why did Sam fuck over his loyal users? Nobody ever asked us to pay. We would have. But suddenly, bam! It's gone. Was it a non-negotiable part of the acquisition? Or did he not even try to negotiate?

Drop.io has paid features and additional storage for a fee. I've been a paying user for two years. Paid accounts were even mentioned in the blog post announcing the acquisition. Seeing the recent development of the site and the evolution of Dropbox made it clear Drop.io wouldn't be around long term.

I never saw it. I never got an email. I never even knew the paid option existed.

Drop.io obviously choked to death because it was too afraid that gesticulating its agony would be embarrassing.

Re: Facebook Acquires Drop.io

#55

Post by jcn » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:02 AM UTC

jkhaff wrote: post #35

I'd love hearing more drop.io alternative suggestions from others. Dropbox and Tonido have been mentioned, but they really aren't the same thing. My band lives in various areas of the country, and we share mp3 files via drop.io. We're able to comment on each riff/song, link directly to the files, get updates via RSS, and even listen to the mp3s without downloading them. Anything else like this exist?

I'll have to give a plug for my company Indaba Music here - http://indabamusic.com

Our site was pretty much designed exactly for this use case - the free account allows for private sessions, in-song commenting and in-session discussion.