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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

#51

Post by mikeash »

hga wrote: post #17
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even then, they can leave Yahoo at any time if they change their minds. They'll just lose out on their big payday.

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

#52

Post by mef »

jusben1369 wrote: post #48
orky56 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. However for what is believed to be an acqui-hire and a team that has some lofty ambitions, I think the founding team and investors must have been happy that the team/product found a nice home.

RIght. But this would never been termed a win by any VC. Perhaps the earliest founders.

Wouldn't the VCs have had preferred stock and gotten liquidation preference before the earliest founders?

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

#53

Post by hga »

mikeash wrote: post #51
hga wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Even then, they can leave Yahoo at any time if they change their minds. They'll just lose out on their big payday.

Outside of California they might be ... hindered by non-competes. I was once in this position: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148918 and one of the many reasons I didn't accept the offer was that non-competes were enforceable in my state, the contact had a nasty one, and the acquiring company did business with so many of the area's organizations that I would have been seriously disadvantaged when it came time to separate.

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

#54

Post by capkutay »

badclient wrote: post #32
chimeracoder wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rockmelt has (had) a very strong leadership team (founders were very successful in the 90s), and a number of strong engineers. It seems clear that this is an acquisition for talent, since they're shutting the product down with less than 30 days' notice. For <$70MM, that could be a relatively cheap acquisition of talent that has proven their ability to make things (if not necessarily proven their ability to make a pro…

For How much money Rockmelt raised says little about how good of a deal Yahoo received. The reverse may be true: Yahoo may have had to pay way more than the real value simply to ensure a return to the investors, not because it valued the company at the price paid.

raising $40 million...the investors most likely just made their money back at best. Maybe 2x for the early investors?

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

#55

Post by darkarmani »

porterhaney wrote: post #46
orky56 wrote: post #13

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…

This acquisition reminds me a lot of Hunch. It's a similar size in terms of team + cost per team member. $2-3M/employee. And, Hunch's core tech seems to have gone into the eBay homepage, which is what Sarah is proposing Yahoo do with Rockmelt.

Why can't you poach employees for less than $2M each?

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

#56

Post by nashequilibrium »

jusben1369 wrote: post #49
ForrestN wrote: post #27

Does anyone have any real insight into the strategy behind all of these acquisitions? Apart from blasé speculation about acqui-hiring (for what products?) and supposition that Yahoo executives are merely stupid, I'd be interested to understand the broader pattern. It's a real news story, and something is going on. There is a strategy. What is it?

Yahoo needs talent to succeed. Yahoo, in general, cannot compete with Google, Facebook or smaller startups for talent. They're better off now than they were prior to Marissa but they're still a definite second best. So they are buying talent to stock the shelves with first rate devs and leaders - mostly in mobile. At some point - say in 6 - 18 more months - talent may come to work for them to work with some of these…

This article might disagree with you:

Yahoo Keeps Buying Startups That Don't Make Their Own Apps http://readwrite.com/2013/07/03/yahoo-qwiki-lawsuit-chaotic-...

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

#58

Post by homakov »

jusben1369 wrote: post #49
ForrestN wrote: post #27

Does anyone have any real insight into the strategy behind all of these acquisitions? Apart from blasé speculation about acqui-hiring (for what products?) and supposition that Yahoo executives are merely stupid, I'd be interested to understand the broader pattern. It's a real news story, and something is going on. There is a strategy. What is it?

Yahoo needs talent to succeed. Yahoo, in general, cannot compete with Google, Facebook or smaller startups for talent. They're better off now than they were prior to Marissa but they're still a definite second best. So they are buying talent to stock the shelves with first rate devs and leaders - mostly in mobile. At some point - say in 6 - 18 more months - talent may come to work for them to work with some of these…

Why do they need talents? they need marketing strategy and profitable products, and a bunch of middle level engineer to implement it.

after all, talents can simply quit their jobs after acquiring

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

#59

Post by mikeash »

hga wrote: post #53
mikeash wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even then, they can leave Yahoo at any time if they change their minds. They'll just lose out on their big payday.

Outside of California they might be ... hindered by non-competes. I was once in this position: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148918 and one of the many reasons I didn't accept the offer was that non-competes were enforceable in my state, the contact had a nasty one, and the acquiring company did business with so many of the area's organizations that I would have been seriously disadvantaged when it came time…

Yuck. Fortunately, both companies in this case are in California.

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

#60

Post by geargrinder »

photorized wrote: post #35
chimeracoder wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rockmelt has (had) a very strong leadership team (founders were very successful in the 90s), and a number of strong engineers. It seems clear that this is an acquisition for talent, since they're shutting the product down with less than 30 days' notice. For <$70MM, that could be a relatively cheap acquisition of talent that has proven their ability to make things (if not necessarily proven their ability to make a pro…

Many people were very successful in the 90s... It was way too easy, not necessarily an indication of talent or strong leadership.

Quote from 20 years in the future: "Many people were very successful in the '10s... It was way too easy, not necessarily an indication of talent or strong leadership."
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