I believe it's being implied that the shame should be in spending all this money to hire a few people (that, supposedly, they could get cheaper on the market). Maybe that they should feel embarrassed in front of investors? That's what I understood.

"Spending all this money"? How much did they spend?

I think you can answer your own rhetorical question. Point taken.

Do you generally have the impression that these acquihires are bonanzas? They aren't: they're usually only marginally more lucrative than the signing package for a senior hire gets anyways, and sometimes less so. Employers gussy them up for team members by giving aggregate numbers, counting on team members not to divide them by 4 and compare them to competing offers. Investors hate them.

The acquihired team is usually only getting two things from them: the founders save face (publicly, not with future investors, who know what an acquihire is), and the whole team gets placed, rather than having to interview individually.

Even that last bit isn't always true.

...the opposite of a "shameful acquihire"?

Maybe they couldn't get him/them to abandon the app without buying it out.

I meant they are not even trying to act if their apps were gaining any traction. It's more an ego trip than an actual business operation. We live in a free country however.

I'm sorry, I'm not following. If their apps aren't gaining traction, how do you want them to act? Should they apologize for failing? Refuse the offer to allow their team to be acquired?