Am I interpreting this correctly as sarcasm? If so, it seems to suggest that the product was overvalued, the acquisition a mistake, and the "success" more to do with luck or duplicity than "lateral thinking", "high performance individuals/teams", or similar ideas brought up by the OP.

Those folks were bright hackers to be sure, but these days the best marker of a bright hacker or someone who intends to be is that they hang out on here.

You can look up my join date if you want, it’s a long time ago, but when I joined up on here I was green as grass and in this field experience, practice and hard work are at least as important to outcomes as native talent.

If you ever want to bat an idea around: ben dot reesman at gmail.

You had me up to this point. Great satire!