

Being acquired doesn't have to suck - hkarthik
http://theprogrammingbutler.com/blog/archives/2012/01/08/being-acquired-doesnt-have-to-suck/

======
minimax
This is a case of one small company acquiring another slightly smaller
company. I think that is as important as anything in terms of the Ordered List
employees being happy as Github employees. In many cases the acquirer is
several orders of magnitude larger than the acquiree, and I think that is what
leads to the "suck" associated with being acquired.

I worked at a company of 200 employees that was acquired by a company of
200,000 employees, and it was a bad enough experience that I promised myself
I'd never work for a big company again, and that if I ever worked for a
company that was acquired by a big company, I'd start a new job search
immediately.

I think this is fairly standard practice, but I've only been through it once.
When we were acquired, management came up a with a set of timelines and
associated goals. 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year. None of the short term
goals were that big of a deal. Log in to the new HR system. Do a sexual
harassment training. It was the longer term "synergy targets" that were the
killers. Tracking every minute of your day to a project. New project
management techniques and new project managers. No more input from engineers
on new features. It happens slowly enough that you don't just walk in one day
and realize you're working at a different company; it's more insidious than
that. I'll never put myself through it again.

~~~
michaelcampbell
I've been on both sides of this situation, and if my (arguably limited)
history is any guide, people like "you" are the very ones the big companies
WANT to leave. (I say "you" in quotes, because I'm that way too and I don't
want to make it sound like I think that's a bad way to be; far from it.)

~~~
rhizome
This is true enough based on my experience at EA. There is a pervasive culture
oriented around adapting to management desires ("your job is to make your boss
look good") and the status quo.

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cmer
It's pretty unusual to be acquired by another startup. It's generally the
culture clash, hierarchy and bureaucracy that make acquisition suck for the
acquiree. None of that happens when a startup acquires you.

~~~
chrisledet
I wouldn't even call Github a start-up anymore. They're passed that phase.

~~~
cmer
Couldn't disagree more. They're a successful startup, but definitely still a
startup.

~~~
chrisledet
How do you figure? They've established a great business model, have over 50
employees, profitable, and are acquiring other companies. Everything needed to
be labelled a success business IMO.

What else would they need to do in order to be pass the start-up mark?

~~~
cmer
A successful business doesn't mean they're not a startup anymore. Dropbox is
hugely successful, but definitely still a startup and its infancy.

Github will remain a startup until they can make a dent in the big boys'
bottom line, for example: Perforce.

Github is insanely successful amongst startups and hackers, but has yet to
significantly penetrate the enterprise. Hopefully this will change (for us and
for them) because their product is a gazillion times better than anything else
out there.

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lordmatty
Great example of an acquisition that will work out - two startups motivated by
the same type of goals and both, as far as I can work out, optimised for
happiness, not optimised for profit.

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rhizome
It's different when you're the boss.

~~~
jonmagic
Definitely, I told this from the viewpoint of one of the guys hired in the
acquisition. Would love to hear more about the other viewpoint.

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brianbreslin
has github ever taken outside money?

~~~
tlrobinson
No. [https://37signals.com/svn/posts/2486-bootstrapped-
profitable...](https://37signals.com/svn/posts/2486-bootstrapped-profitable-
proud-github)

~~~
brianbreslin
i thought that was the case, and figured we would have heard of them raising a
round since then.

~~~
jonmagic
We keep this page updated: <https://github.com/about>

VC Funding: $0.00

