Re:How GoDaddy Acquired and Dismantled a Successful Startup
by steve-benjamins on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @02:28PM
(#9220148)
Did you read the article?
GoDaddy never set out to acquire Virb. It just happened to. This is more of a story about the messiness of acquisitions than any kind of dark, malicious intentions by GoDaddy.
Re:How GoDaddy Acquired and Dismantled a Successful Startup
by KaiserPro on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @02:57PM
(#9220372)
Yes,
but sorry, no one spunks out millions of dollars to get a happy accident. There are months of wranglings, negotiations, covenants drawn up, targets created.
Granted Virb might have been collateral, but thats the point of my question. Why, was it lack of interest, did it cost to much to develop?
The mechanics are simple, and obvious. GoDaddy buys an upstart with money, kills it be starving it of resources.
Whats more interesting is why it would do such a thing. To acquire a company and kill it takes a lot of time and effort. It must have been either a great threat, or have assets worth spending money on.
This isn't an uncommon practice. However its less common in the world of startups, mainly because no one runs at a profit, they can't afford to spend valuable run time capital killing a competitor.
Autodesk and Avid are the masters of the buy and kill.