
Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts (YC W10) - dell9000
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/salesforce-buys-email-contact-manager-etacts/
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OoTheNigerian
Quite disappointed in the way Etacts handled this. here I was disappointed on
their behalf not knowing they had sold. The best they could/should have done
is to say we are selling and we are shutting down. That is the proper thing to
do, period. We as customers/users deserve that much.

Why the secret? Especially if the news was still going to come out!

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wdewind
Are you serious? You really can't think of any reasons they wouldn't be 100%
open about this?

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andrewljohnson
I have never seen a company post a blog that said "we're shutting down" only
to hear later that they got bought. Ever.

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charlesju
Usually in term sheets there is a clause that says the founders cannot talk
publicly about the acquisition.

Salesforce can do whatever they want.

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davidedicillo
Apparently Salesforce is getting their own AppSumo YC Bundle

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robryan
To me this is a worrying trend, what happens in a couple of years time when
users have decided there no longer jumping on the latest startup products
because they either get successful and shut down the product or fail and shut
down the product.

How do you do interviews talking up how important the product is, why everyone
needs it, only to discard it after a short period of time. These talent
acquisition's must really be getting big in dollar terms? Because otherwise it
all seems irrational.

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pierrefar
So why the oddly worded shut down message on their website? Why not announce
the acquisition?

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steveklabnik
Maybe they bought it for the team, not the product. If the product is then
getting killed, people that use the site wouldn't care why: they just care
it's going away.

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pierrefar
Some users might be happy to know that the service got bought out.

Take it in reverse: if they were closing down due to personal illness or death
or something else horrible, would you still argue that the users don't care? I
doubt it. Customers are human after all and care.

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axod
Talent acquisitions seem to be big business this last year.

Is this a recent thing buying 'teams' and shutting down the stupid startup
thingy they were working on for the last year?

Is conventional hiring talent really that broken?

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dshah
Yes, conventional talent recruiting really is that broken.

This process may not be all bad though. The entrepreneurs get some liquidity
and at least a modest success on their belt.

Story A: "Started something cool. Built a product people wanted. Was acquired
by Company X. On to something new."

Story BY: "Started something cool. Built a product people wanted. Didn't quite
get the traction we hoped. Stuck it out for 3 years. Finally decided we just
couldn't build a business out of it and shut it down."

In my mind, Story A is much better for the entrepreneur than Story B. Of
course, the trick is knowing when it's time to move on.

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vidar
Seems like YC is clearing out their inventory.

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ph0rque
Year-end inventory clearance sale?

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markbao
But wait! Order in the next 23 minutes and get Rapportive absolutely free!
(just pay due diligence)

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famoreira
Maybe they should be more transparent upfront about the sale, no? Seems a bad
way to handle a sale with your current users.

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ghshephard
What more do you need to know than the following: "We have decided to pursue
other opportunities and will be shutting down our service on January 31, 2011.
Thanks for supporting us and for all you've done."

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famoreira
Well I am sure they are entitled to it but I don't understand the secrecy
around the sale.

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ghshephard
I'm actually quite interested in knowing what type of transparency you are
looking for and how it will help you as a customer/user of etacts? Seriously -
I realize we all have an innate selfish desire to hear the details of the deal
(myself, more than most, I suspect) - but in terms of the etacts guys being
transparent with their user base, so their users know what next steps to take
- what else should they have done/what would you have liked them to do for
you?

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staunch
Is it really so hard to understand that users want to know why a company is
shutting down a service they use? Even brick & mortar places will usually tell
customers "Our lease renewal would be too expensive" or the "Sales have slowed
due to the economy". All they had to say was "We've been acquired by
Salesforce". They handled it differently than most companies do.

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ghshephard
Oh, I totally understand that users want to know why a company is shutting
down - myself included. Heck, I'd also like to know if they are selling any of
their services/IP, who they are selling them to, and, as long as we are
playing this game, I'd _love_ to know what the terms were, how much, and
whether the team will be moving to salesforce as well. These are all things
that I very much am interested in.

My Nit with the OP is that they made a comment about how etacts was handling
"transparency" with their user base - and I believe that they did 100% of what
I'd expect any service provider I'm with do - give me a heads up, in advance,
as to what the next steps with their organization and service were (and issue
me a partial refund - I'm not sure if the etacts guys had paying customers
yet).

As a interested observer, I want much, much more. As an etacts customer, I'm
satisfied that they've provided me the transparency I'd expect of any
responsible service provider.

Compare this to how Yahoo has been handling delicious - "Sunsetting?",
"Closing", "Keeping up", "Selling?" - who knows - it's not even clear they
know/knew.

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maukdaddy
This is odd. Both Salesforce and their acquirees have been pretty vocal and
open about their previous acquisitions. What's so different this time?

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mike4u2
That explains it.

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rubyrescue
good news for one of my clients - <http://ming.ly> \- they're a social CRM for
gmail similar to etacts (but a bit more full-featured)

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joelhaus
Perhaps Salesforce framed the message this way to avoid the negative publicity
that comes with transitioning a free service to a paid service?

It may not be the most sound logic, but at least it would make some sense.

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revorad
Congratulations guys!

I didn't remember etacts launched this year. Howie's mixergy interview seems
ages ago.

