
How Start-Ups are Sold - mqt
http://babar.newsvine.com/_news/2007/05/03/698145-how-start-ups-are-sold
======
nostrademons
"If you are selling a company, get a stock deal from the buying company and
save a ton on taxes."

Another factor: consider the current stock price of the acquirer and how it
relates to the company's intrinsic valuation (if you don't know enough to
estimate intrinsic valuation, learn enough finance until you do). People who
sold dot-coms in late '99 with a one-year lockup got screwed: their payout
wasn't worth anything by the time they could sell, and oftentimes the acquirer
was bankrupt by then. People who sold dot-coms in early '98 (Bo Peabody, and I
think PG may be in this boat) made out handsomely. People who sold dot-coms in
2002 to strong, growing companies - assuming they could find any buyers -
would have become filthy rich. If Friendster had taken Google's $30M offer
back then, it would be worth close to $1B now.

------
randallsquared
"[...] the YouTube founders are now set for life and count it as personal
wealth."

Well, unless Google stock crashes. As anyone who has ever been to a casino
knows, it's not your money until you've cashed in your chips -- at any time
before that, it could all disappear.

