
Twitter acquires BackType (YC S08) - razin
http://blog.backtype.com/2011/07/backtype-has-been-acquired-by-twitter/
======
nestlequ1k
I don't get it. Are startups now just a new resume? How are BackType users
supposed to react to this? How are users supposed to trust other API startups
if they can just get the rug pulled out from them like this?

I'm happy for the team, but is there not any way they could have transitioned
the project to other developers and still joined twitter fulltime?

~~~
andrewljohnson
Start-ups are businesses. They make money for their investors and founders.
Handing off the code sounds like hippie poppycock to me. I suppose they can do
it if they want to, but they don't have to.

~~~
amirmc
Sure, but it reinforces the notion that you can't put too much faith in a
startup sticking it out.

Normally that's because people think they might go bust and you'll lose that
thing you got used to having. It also applies to when a startup gets acquired
and the service is then shut down. Folks who've been stung by this once might
think twice before using/buying stuff from a small company in future.

~~~
endlessvoid94
So far, I haven't heard a PEEP from anyone paying backtype. If what you say is
true, where is all the press about how horrible this is for their customers?

~~~
benjiweber
We're using the BackType API and it is frustrating that they're discontinuing
the API. They've also just announced the discontinuation of the service with
no word about timescales that this entails. For all we know they could
discontinue it tomorrow.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone offering a real alternative to
the BackType APIs. There is Topsy which doesn't seem to have as much data
coverage. Other alternatives require handling live streams of considerably
more data.

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swombat
[ YC08 ]

BackType has raised a total of $1.32m according to
<http://www.crunchbase.com/company/backtype>

No speculation as to the size of the acquisition, but I guess anything between
$10-100m is possible, which would give YC a return of about 3% (6% adjusted
down to 70% twice) of that, or somewhere between $300k and $3m?

"YCombinator: turning $15k into $300k in 3 years"

Not bad.

Edit: This is based on the idea that BackType is successful, and had other
options (which may not be the case, since their QuantCase/Compete graph is
going down)... if they were about to go bust, the price could be considerably
lower... but if they were doing well, I imagine investors would have blocked a
sale lower than $10m.

~~~
reso
I've been told by people close to the company that it was in the $50-100
million range. Given how aggressive the Backtype guys are, this doesn't shock
me at all.

$100 mil split three ways is quite a prize.

~~~
rokhayakebe
I assumed it was sub 10M. If in fact they sold it for north of 30M, I would be
really impressed. This is a team of 3, I believe. Nice work, BT.

~~~
nerfhammer
it's 4 people: <http://twitter.com/backtype/team/members>

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plinkplonk
Old readwriteweb article

"Secrets of BackType's Data Engineers - How do three guys with only seed
funding process 100 million msgs a day?"

[http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/01/secrets-of-
backtype...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/01/secrets-of-backtypes-
data-engineers.php) HN discussion
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2097926>

I am not a Clojure fan, but I found BackType engineer Nathan Marz's fusion of
Datalog, Clojure and Hadoop to create Cascalog very impressive, and was
looking forward to Storm.

~~~
apgwoz
Given Twitter's history with Open Source, I'm guessing we'll still see Storm.

------
icey
A) Congratulations to the BackType team! I wonder if they're the first
Clojure-heavy startup to be acquired. It will be interesting to see what
happens to their technology stack after a couple of years.

B) Does this impact the open-sourcing of Storm?

~~~
plam
Flightcaster is even earlier. FC might have been the first.

~~~
icey
Oh you're right - I totally forgot about Flightcaster's acquisition!

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joblessjunkie
I wish that when a headline announced "Big company acquires little startup
you've never heard of" that it would be accompanied by some explanation of
what the little startup actually does, and why it is interesting.

~~~
scorpioxy
You would typically know about it if you're into social media analytics and
metrics and its effects on advertising and so on.

Their technology stack is very cool. The amount of data it needs to process is
staggering. And this whole field is relatively new so there are tons of
potential in it.

~~~
retube
Yes but even the fairly niche demographic of HN extends to those with
interests outside of social analytics.

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thecoffman
Congrats guys! I worked with Nathan, and he's a brilliant guy. Well deserved
success.

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brlewis
"we will discontinue the BackType product and API services"

Besides Google Alerts, what alternatives are out there?

~~~
siculars
I was using some of BackType's API's myself. Now I'm taking a look at
<http://corp.topsy.com/developers/api/>.

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swannodette
I wonder what affect this will have on the open sourcing of Storm.

~~~
gvnonor
I think you meant effect.

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randall
Black shirt acquired! Congrats guys!

~~~
apgwoz
If you're referring to the "I made something people want," is it true? It
sounds like they really want the engineers, which they didn't _make_ (their
parents did, I guess they deserve the shirt then?).

 _Yes, I'm joking._ Congrats to the team! They should wear their shirts
proudly!

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pdelgallego
Congrats to the guys of BackType.

I have been very tempted to apply to their internship during the winter.

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siculars
Looks like they shut their free api down around noon today. Not even a tweet.
Boo.

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edawerd
Congrats guys. Well deserved.

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chrisvallejos
Congratulations to BackType!

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ddemchuk
and yet no profit has been had...good job twitter, good job

~~~
chr15
Companies rarely buy other companies for their profits. Most of the time it's
a strategic move e.g. Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck to protect itself from
aggressive moves by UberMedia

~~~
ddemchuk
It baffles me how, with the number of investors involved and the huge amount
of money on the line, Twitter is making any strategic move other than "how do
we get profitable"

