
Yahoo only did 3 acquisitions in 2006, for $42m - kul
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-10k-watch-yhoo-42-million-on-three-acquisitions-in-06-launch-suit-heads
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phil
8.3% of what they did in 2005: wow.

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schizobullet
Yahoo has been dying ever since Google took off.

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Nick_Smith
50 percent of their traffic is for their mail service at this point, according
to Alexa. If they ever get beaten on that, it'll be lights out for them.

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dpapathanasiou
Just another reminder that acquisition cannot be your only exit strategy.

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pg
More that you can't count on any given acquirer.

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dpapathanasiou
True, but does that imply that companies should be formed with the sole
purpose/goal of getting acquired?

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danielha
Of course it'd be ideal to create a company with a sustaining business model;
there's no question about that.

Is that the only time a company should be formed? That may be akin to only
purchasing shares in long-term growth companies. Sometimes it's in your best
interest to just ride the short-term explosion and move on.

It's completely viable to get into something with only a foreseeable immediate
market. After a certain point, perhaps the company would be better off taking
advantage of the economies of scale. It isn't a problem to be true to yourself
and realize early on that an acquisition is the best end-target for your new
company.

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dpapathanasiou
Right, it's a strategy you could decide to use. The only downside is if you
don't get acquired, you're forced to shut down.

YC's application asks both "How will you make money?" and "Which companies
would be most likely to buy you?" so I was interested in finding out which
strategy they're most likely to advocate in practice

