On: HowStuffWorks Acquired by Discovery for $250M

HowStuffWorks was probably the site I visited most through middle school and a good bit of high school. Wikipedia has largely replaced it, at least in my experience.

Considering they raised $120 million in VC, is a $250 million acquistion a major success? The founders are probably rich now, but for the investors, it doesn't seem much better than breaking even (especially since the site is ten years old). What did they need $120 million for, anyway?

the founders actually might not be rich -- VCs tend to structure deals that only make founders rich on a big (probably more than the 2x here) exit.

(for example, liquidation preferences and other terms can make the returns much uglier for founders/employees/other common stockholders - http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/01/term_sheet_liqu.ht... )

ah, I had no idea they raised $120 million. That's a lot of cash for a site like this.