Do Acquisitions Always Kill Products?

http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/01/do-acquisitions-always-kill-products.html

by nikunjk • 13 years ago

9 6 13 years ago

blog.eladgil.com

dictum• 13 years ago

Most acquired products aren't dead if you use an specific definition of "alive": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_theseus

eladgil2• 13 years ago

Well, if they are completely shut down (i.e. server is turned off) they are pretty dead :)

wikwocket• 13 years ago

This is an interesting article and I like the author's characterizations of acquisitions, but I cannot imagine a worse way to present that data than this. Including a large spreadsheet via a tiny viewing portal in a narrow-format blog post.

I'm curious if there is a reason for including it this way as I don't see anything in the SS that could not presented in a simple list, like this:

  Acqui-hire
  Soft landing with small signing bonuses for the team. Usually the investors 
    get nothing and the common stock may more or less get wiped.
  Product survival: 0%
  % of Tech Acquisitions: 20%
  Founder retention after 2 years: Mixed, depending on how well the team integration 
    goes, and whether the founders are given real roles or sidelined. If founders 
    are exhausted they may enjoy the slower pace of a larger company.
  Examples: Most people don't want their acqui-hire to be characterized as such

eladgil2• 13 years ago

yeah, i am trying to clean up the formatting now :/ published too soon

im3w1l• 13 years ago

To view the spreadsheet full screen

Right click - this frame - show only this frame.

Or just go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoNag2KcCMGvdGR...

broseph• 13 years ago

The embedded Google Spreadsheet is proof that not all products are killed by acquisitions: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-nice-to-share.htm...

Do Acquisitions Always Kill Products?

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