

Facebook Acquires Sofa - muratmutlu
http://www.madebysofa.com/blog/facebook-acquires-sofa/

======
mmaunder
Talent acquisitions make me sad. I think about all the job creation machines
that might have been.

There's a standard model in the valley on both the supply and demand side. It
goes like this:

On the demand side:

Recruiting costs money. Hiring talent is risky when you don't know the
caliber. Picking up one engineer at a time is costly and inefficient because
you're competing with many other great companies. Acquiring a group of proven
engineers not only solves all these problems but it gives you a way to lock
them into working for you for years with an earn-out. And every engineer knows
that dev's who "sold a startup" get laid more.

On the supply side:

A great business model is to come up with a startup that is super-interesting
to talented engineers. Raise money and recruit them in droves with the
prospect of massive wealth and being the next Facebook. Hand out stock options
like candy and never mention the difference between short and long-term
capital gains. Then when you hit 10+ great employees, start shaking your booty
around the valley and see if you can flip for $2M per engineer plus a nice
cash-out for founders and investors. [Usually around $20M total].

~~~
frossie
Talent acquisitions make me sad because they reduce diversity in the product
place. I find it hard to believe that a company with 2,000 talented engineers
will put out as much interesting stuff as 100 shops of 20 talented engineers.

Also, while I am not in startups, I thought the whole attraction for those who
do them is the independence in doing your own thing. I find it hard to believe
that this can be achieved after being subsumed in Google, Facebook, or other
giant.

~~~
jmathai
In an odd way "acquisition" defies that for a short period of time. It's
almost like the startup is a means to acquisition.

But ultimately the attraction is independence and faster iteration. That's why
you see people who wind up going back to startups.

------
adamjernst
Sofa is one of the most talented design firms out there. I've had the pleasure
to work with Jasper long ago and his work is brilliant. The fact that they
made software was really only a byproduct of that. Congrats to the Sofa team
on getting acquired, and I look forward to seeing your design work at
Facebook!

~~~
dirkstoop
Hey Adam, thanks for the nice words, it means a lot :)

~~~
kenjackson
Never heard of you till just now, but looked at your designs. Incredible work.
You all should consider doing a video of you designing an icon or image or
page or something. I'd definitely pay to watch designers of your caliber go
through the process.

~~~
koenigdavidmj
I want to see screencasts of programmers at work, while we are at it.

~~~
wallflower
If you haven't seen this one of Notch, it is pretty inspiring:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV-AFnCkRLY>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1629810>

------
lylejohnson
> "Sofa’s products, Kaleidoscope and Versions, are not a part of this
> acquisition. Both apps will remain available and we’re committed to securing
> a great future for them outside Sofa."

There haven't been any significant updates for Versions since I purchased my
license for it two years ago, so I don't see how the situation for Versions
could get _worse_ at this point.

~~~
cheez
So you bought one license 2 years ago. Presumably it worked.

What's the problem again?

~~~
lurker19
The problem is that new features and improvements are not forthcoming, and
when software is closed source it is impossible to take business elsewhere if
the copyright holder loses interest.

~~~
cheez
When you buy a car, do you receive free upgrades?

~~~
nestlequ1k
When you buy software, you expect it to improve over time. Name a mac
developer who posts on their site "we're no longer updating this software, but
please buy it anyways". It would never get a single sale.

I don't mind paying for upgrades. But I want these upgrades to exist, and for
the developers to commit to the product they are selling and improve it over
time.

~~~
cheez
When you buy a license for the software, you are buying the license as of this
date. You should not ever buy software for future possible improvements. The
only situation in which I'd say it is really necessary is OS security updates.

If any customer ever asks me: "I'll buy it if you add this feature", I always
reply: "please buy it based on current features otherwise I cannot promise
anything".

~~~
nestlequ1k
You're living in a fantasy world. It may be how you think the software
business should work, but it's not how it works.

Your opinion as a software developer means nothing in this case. Ask your
customers what they think. You might be able to get away with this strategy
for a little while, but it's a surefire way to kill any product. Stop updating
an app for a few years and see how great your sales are after that.

~~~
cheez
I know of quite a few products that have not been updated since the late 90's,
early 2000's and bring in quite a nice chunk of change.

The common characteristics:

* The customers are not whiners: Does it work? Yes? Sold

* Non-trivial problem: Inventory, computer graphics, math

* Pricing: Expensive

So, ok, some company making a subversion interface stopped updating their
software. Someone else picks it up because it's /easy/.

That's why you don't make software for software developers! Sell them chairs
or something.

These guys keep making money because the problems they solve are hard.

------
cyphorous
It looks like 'Facebook for Desktop' is gonna come out soon. They wouldn't
wanna leave any platform unattended.

Next they might be adding cloud services for its users and for that they need
to capture all of the platforms for their clients.

Every few months there is an ipad Facebook app. No official app. It's about
time.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
If so, that would go against Facebook's web-first mantra, not having an iPad
app and all. I'm not sure why they would skip and build a Mac app, and I'm not
sure why they would build a Mac app instead of a Windows app. Hopefully
they're doing an HTML5 desktop app. Facebook in canvas or Facebook in
raphaeljs would be killer.

------
c4urself
Congrats guys! A side question, how does immigration to the US work for these
guys? EB-5 Visa? I hear tons of stories on how hard it is to immigrate to the
States, but when Facebook does it for you all of a sudden it is no longer an
issue.

~~~
ojbyrne
Totally random but I bet an L-1 works here. They become a subsidiary of
Facebook in the Netherlands, they've worked there for at least a year, they
just transfer to the parent corp.

------
jason_slack
Sofa indeed has great talent.

However their track record with products leaves a lot to be desired?

Look at DiscoAPP. They put the app out, collected some money and left it to
collect dust. I offered to buy the source and they said someday they would
pick it up again. Never happened.

Versions is good app. But they simply move at a glacial pace. Again, collect
money and development almost stops.

So I guess Cornerstone is going to get a lot more business as I think many
long time Apple folks realize their purchases from Sofa are obsolete.

Shame because they have talent.

------
skrebbel
Quite the talent buyout I'd say: they're actually convincing people to move to
Palo Alto from _Amsterdam_. That's not particularly Mountain View.

Surprising, too; If some BigCo would buy the company I work for and ask me to
pretty please move across the pond, I'd reconsider inf times.

------
code_duck
My wild guess is that Facebook is working on something that requires a lot of
icons, such as a mobile interface.

------
cheez
What the hell, why...

Edit: I'm sure it will have something to do with their design skills, which
are pretty good!

~~~
kubrickslair
Also that Facebook is trying to build a desktop software team. May be they too
want to own the clients.

<http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/27/facebook-desktop/>

~~~
desigooner
Maybe an application that has Facebook features + Facebook Chat a la Gtalk /
Aim + Some sort of Skype integration to enable video chat for its users ..

------
rishi
These guys have amazing design. Have you guys seen the cappuccino maker
design? Incredible! <http://www.madebysofa.com/#design>

------
DeusExMachina
Tangentially related: <http://mur.mu.rs/?p=156>

------
devians
Oh dear. Hopefully whoever picks up versions can devote more time to getting
it feature complete.

~~~
pbreit
Same with Checkout and Enstore. While Sofa has pretty good design skills, it's
development speed leaves a bit to be desired.

------
ry0ohki
I was kind of hoping they bought it so they could sue Apple for the name
"Versions" for their new version control feature.

------
mcantor
They'd been sitting on the floor until now.

------
briggsbio
After reading this post my insides were grumbling, "Ugh. Acquihire." And yes,
this is actually the first TRUE acquihire to my knowledge, in that the
products themselves weren't even a part of the deal.

But after browsing through <http://www.madebysofa.com/#design>, I'm absolutely
floored. This is beyond top-notch.

This was a perfectly justifiable acquisition of sky-high talent.

Yes, I somewhat disagree with the acquihire in principle, but in these cases
it makes sense. I liken this to buying a division from a large company. Keep
the team intact, on-board them cohesively, and Facebook will have a big win
here. I hope Sofa's team is successful in shifting Facebook's aesthetic from
"function over form" to a better balance of the two.

------
abbasmehdi
Why is their name sofa and the logo a loveseat? Just saw their work and wow!
Congrats guys!

~~~
zachrose
Perhaps because All Logos Must Fit in a Square These Days?

~~~
dirkstoop
Exactly.

<http://yfrog.com/ki79jj>

------
spicyj
Why does this make sense for them?

~~~
phillryu
Did you work for MySpace?

------
rokhayakebe
Facebook is building a browser.

------
ducuboy
Brilliant designers.

I understand they wanted to capitalize on their talent, but I'm afraid that
Facebook, like any other mastodon, will drain their shine. That would be
really sad.

------
ninh
The Sofa guys are super talented and I wish Koen and his team all the best on
this new and exciting venture! Congrats to Facebook on acquiring such an
outstanding team! :-)

------
tanay46
Wow! Just had a look at their designs and they are pretty amazing! Maybe
Facebook are making a desktop app after all?

------
mr_gi
I think FB acquired them for their "Enstore" product. Enstore makes it easy
for customers to setup merchant portals. My wild guess is FB wants to be like
Amazon and eBay marketplace.

~~~
tpatke
From the link above - the products were not part of the acquisition.

------
dreamdu5t
Amsterdam to Palo Alto!? Palo Alto is a shithole compared to Amsterdam.

------
klbarry
Is Sofa still open for new business, even though Facebook now owns it?

~~~
dirkstoop
You can find everything about our apps and Enstore here:
<http://www.madebysofa.com/future/>

We won't be taking on any more contract work (haven't anyway since the end of
2009)

Cheers, \- Dirk

------
ryanisinallofus
Talent Acquisition.

------
bretthellman
Thrilled for them even though it's horrible to see FB continue to squash
innovation.

~~~
ceejayoz
How on earth is this FB squashing innovation?

~~~
brown9-2
Curious how people blame the acquirer for this type of thing and not the
acquiree.

------
alok-g
Their app, Kaleidoscope (<http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/>), sounds to be an
incredibly simple app to make. Not that I am planning to make yet another app
like that, does someone know if it's selling well?

~~~
tolmasky
Its actually an incredibly complex app. Beyond being a UI dream, it was also
technically rigorous as they for example came up with their own custom diffing
algorithms for more human readable diffs.

~~~
alok-g
OK. Does not still look complex to me from an implementation standpoint. Maybe
I need to try it out to get a better feel for it.

~~~
flyosity
Do you even know Cocoa? I do, and I can't even begin to explain how they did
the linked code scrollviews comparing the diffs. Trust me: implementation was
extremely complex.

~~~
klaaspieter
I've seen the math behind it and you are definitely correct.

~~~
alok-g
Could you please enlighten me?

In the fluid mode, the text on the two panes need not be of the same height
given the insertions and deletions. So when scrolling, the scroll speeds for
the two panes would need to be different. Is this what is being talked about?

