Is Getting Acquired Any Fun?
Now I know this might be a strange question to ask since the goal of many companies is to get bought out and therefore it must be fun if that happens right? Well this year I am pointed to two examples where getting acquired seems to have a very short High period followed by a lot of Lows.
Now in the first case, Aaron Swartz, one of the few super geniuses on the web, was destined to leave Conde Nast because he is an independent spirit. Things were great when Reddit was bought and I’m glad to see that he wasn’t forced to stay there for a year. A good purchase by Conde and smart move by Aaron. In this case getting acquired could be kind of fun if you already know what your second exit strategy is going to be.
In the second case you have MyBlogLog which was purchased by Yahoo this year in one of the most mind-boggling acquisitions I could ever think of. Anyways, MBL was starting to take off so getting acquired by Yahoo when they were still very small was a great thing because now they would have the resources they needed to do what they want right? Well it doesn’t really look like it.
If you have any experience with MBL you know it has been one disaster after another and all of it seems to surround spam. This past weekend was no exception and if you read the above link you will understand why. However, one part caught my eye in that entry and it made me do a double-take because I never pictured the acquired life to be like this.
First, in the States it was a three day weekend, so everyone was basking in the thought of staying offline for a few days and coming back recharged. Todd and John were back in Orlando at a wedding and Steve, who just moved out here, is busy looking for a place to live. And I’m splitting my free time between unpacking and giving my wife time off from watching our 16-month-old. No one was looking online.
Now I’m all for companies being acquired and the holding company being hands off, but isn’t that a bit too hands off? Nobody was online scoping out what is happening with the site? I don’t really understand the purpose of getting acquired if you get more spam, still have to completely run things and you can’t walk away without someone in the mega-company looking over things.
But then again in my world you get to ride on the backs of butterflies and the clouds are made of cotton candy.
Acquisitions are easy. Just a cash and paperwork. And forgetting that there are actually people involved.
The acquisition is just the beginning. Having been through my fair share of both acquisitions and acquisition aftermath I can safely say that bringing people and technology and resources into the fold in a thoughtful and straightforward way takes forever. It’s rarely easy and rarely successful. And it takes a long, long, long time.
Did I mention that it takes a long time?
The MyBlogLog-Yahoo relationship is so new, this isn’t surprising in the least.
Take the Google-Blogger relationship. Google is just barely getting the Blogger code aligned with the Google ID system, and they’ve owned them for how long?
As usual, I digress. Apparently, I’m all jittery from ingesting one too many cotton-candy clouds.
By Rick Turoczy on February 20, 2007 4:31 pm
I like the candy clouds. Maybe I’m old fashioned and don’t have a sod it attitude - can’t say how I’d be if I got brought out for a chunk of money, but think it would be the same. You either keep your eye on the ball or install an eye - you don’t just not bother and potter off to the bank singing in your head. Investors usually invest because of selfish reasons, they aren’t giving someone the money and not caring about what happens after that.
By karmatosed on February 20, 2007 8:32 pm
Getting acquired is the single worst thing for a start up. The integration with the parent company is never well done. You almost always lose all of the momentum that made a company worth acquiring in the first place.
By engtech on February 21, 2007 4:15 pm
What link? I would like to read that story.
And, are you prepping yourself for the coming requests to acquire 9rules? ;)
By Justin Kistner on February 23, 2007 7:55 am
I’ve been using MBL for some time now and it seems the largest change they’ve made is to change the default setting of “Show messages from non-contacts?” from on to off.
I’d appreciate a link to that story too :)
By hthth on February 23, 2007 9:06 am