Basically, funded the company of their star engineer(s), and had a put/call (for Cisco and funded co) option based on certain milestones being met.
Deal summaries:
Andiamo (2001): cisco funded 180m, paid 750m to buy.
Nuova (2006): funded 70m, paid 678m.
Insieme (2012): funded 135m, paid 863m.
All founded by the same three engineers. This practice fell out of favor under chambers CEO-ship. Other employees (and execs, most importantly probably ha) didn't like for understandable reasons, but interesting to see similar dynamics play out here, with similar reactions.
Basically, funded the company of their star engineer(s), and had a put/call (for Cisco and funded co) option based on certain milestones being met.
Deal summaries:
Andiamo (2001): cisco funded 180m, paid 750m to buy.
Nuova (2006): funded 70m, paid 678m.
Insieme (2012): funded 135m, paid 863m.
All founded by the same three engineers. This practice fell out of favor under chambers CEO-ship. Other employees (and execs, most importantly probably ha) didn't like for understandable reasons, but interesting to see similar dynamics play out here, with similar reactions.