

Yahoo returns acquired startup to founders - joashwee
http://e27.sg/2012/07/24/yahoo-resurrects-indonesias-foursquare-koprol-sign-of-a-more-mayer-ish-approach-to-talent-appreciation/

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tseabrooks
The article doesn't make it clear; Do they get their code also? Presumably the
original acquisition was of the "product" but the article REPEATEDLY points
out the original founders have gained the rights to the trademark and the
domain.

What good is the domain without the code? They could rewrite the code from
scratch. Though, that maks me wonder... If I single handedly write a piece of
SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo. Can I then make a new site / app that
dose "X"? Is it copyright infringement (a la the android / oracle Tim Sort)
since anything I write that is an identical app is likely to have very
similar, if not identical, code?

How much of what is in my head is mine and how much is covered by copyright if
I've written it before?

~~~
_delirium
_If I single handedly write a piece of SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo.
Can I then make a new site / app that dose "X"?_

One example that comes to mind is Miller Puckette, who wrote Max, and then a
few years later wrote its main open-source competitor, Pure Data. It seems
quite possible to write a clone of your own software without literally writing
the same thing, especially if it's been a few years and you have some new
ideas about how to do it now. My guess is that doing so would most often be
sunk, if it is, by software patents or explicit clauses in the sale terms,
rather than copyright.

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_delirium
Odd sentence construction:

 _a rockstar team ... successfully exited the company to Yahoo_

I assume this is trying to invoke the jargon use of "an exit", but in this
context it has a garden-path reading implying that the team succeeded in
quitting the company. I probably would've just said "successfully sold the
company".

~~~
dools
A somewhat more subtle example of what my friend refers to as "vouns" (ie.
nouns used as verbs) - regularly "gifted" to the English speaking peoples of
the world by the Americans.

Although exit is of course a verb, it's use in this sentence is pretty
confusing given the fact that they're undoubtedly referering to "an exit".

~~~
jimm
Verbing weirds language. -- Calvin

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swombat
How weird. Does anyone know if this is indeed connected to Marissa Mayer? If
so, looks like she's off to a pretty good start when it comes to mending
Yahoo!'s broken image.

~~~
rolandal
This was already in the works pre-Mayer...

~~~
antr
I just hope that MM values inside talent and does not go on a startup shopping
spree. Yahoo has great undervalued, underutilized assets, and with Yahoo's
distribution and reach it can do great things without overpaying for "frothy"
startups with dubious value/products.

~~~
itmag
"Yahoo has great undervalued, underutilized assets"

Such as? I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious to know.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I always thought Yahoo Pipes[1] was an amazing product - especially for when
it was first released.

If Amazon had developed it they'd have called it 'Data Processing Services'
and charged for how many cycles it took up.

1 - <http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/>

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pxlpshr
The next time I'm involved in an acquisition as a founder, I'm going to
negotiate clauses to reverse the acquisition based on milestones by the
acquiring company. While I would like to think that this should only happen
under severe circumstances that one would not usually predict, shit happens. I
wasn't prepared or experienced enough to protect myself.

Talent acqhires needs to be clear and not overpromise and under deliver.
There's nothing I respect more than transparency, and there's nothing I
despise more than koolaid. Koolaid works for some, necessary evil for uniting
a company during hard times, but not for the guys (and gals) who've been in
the trenches and understand the game. Maybe this is part of the game, but who
wants to go through the legal headaches to make an acquisitions and then go
back to HR to find human capital replacements 1-2 years in because they got
frustrated and left?...

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monsterix
Will be really great if they returned Flickr too. And come back to the
acquisitions table once they've figured out their purpose!

[Edited for my stale information on what they did with Delicious, last summer.
Phew!]

~~~
zalew
delicious was sold over a year ago to youtube founders

~~~
gruseom
_delicious was sold over a year ago to youtube founders_

Who, it pains me to say, proceeded to make it horribly worse and then do
nothing with it.

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sfrnld
another article about Koprol: [http://dailysocial.net/en/2012/07/24/yahoo-
returns-koprol-to...](http://dailysocial.net/en/2012/07/24/yahoo-returns-
koprol-to-its-founders-koprol-2-0-may-yet-survive/) and this one about the
company that will relaunch Koprol [http://dailysocial.net/en/2012/07/24/from-
the-ashes-of-kopro...](http://dailysocial.net/en/2012/07/24/from-the-ashes-of-
koprol-rise-barito-labs-and-ice-house/)

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89a
Transferred what to who?

First I've even heard of this thing

~~~
rolandal
Tranfer the Koprol domain and trademark back to the founders - the code they
are trying to sell back to the founders...

