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I'd never experienced that before, or heard of others who had experienced it.
They have several factors - the primary being their taking a few very specific instances of companies, declaring these companies' manager-employee ratio be the ideal, and then computing how much other companies would save if they had similar manager-employee ratio.
This is just wrong.
By the same argument, given that Apple's retail revenue is $5,500 per sq feet while Target is only $300, we should conclude that Target is wasting retail space and it should save money by shutting down 94% of its locations.
That is of course completely incorrect - these are two very different businesses. The same problem exists with the original analysis.
The Board has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. They can say NO to a "serious offer" only if they can claim with confidence that the offer is undervaluing the assets, or if there is another better offer. Neither was true for Twitter.
Also telcos only have data for their customers - this gets them access to competitors' customers.
It has been my experience that in the vast majority of the cases, the VCs and the acquirers behave honorably, and do the right thing.
This is due to several factors: 1. They are ethical and/or more concerned about their reputation, esp. for future transactions. 2. The decision makers do not personally gain from such poor behavior (the $ flow to the organization, not to them). 3. The decision makers on the acquiring side are concerned about making enemies with others from the acquired companies.
I also tested the monitors by exhaling directly on them, and confirming the change in readings.
If you are working with a recruiter, it may be useful for you to ask them - as a Hiring Manager, I shared candid feedback with the recruiter so that they could provide better candidates in the future. Alternately, if you connect with someone in the Interview Team, you may be able to get them to give you "off-the-record" feedback.
Please remember to accept all feedback without getting defensive or pushing back, even if you believe the Hiring Team didn't do the right thing. If you want to set the record straight, it is better to do so in a separate conversation.
My recollection is that the concerns were not around technical merit: a. Tcl and Java were positioned as competitors, b. Sun saw Java as a critical weapon in its fight against Microsoft, c. Java won the internal battle, which led to Tcl/Scriptics spin out.
Any statement has to balance the message across these three. For example, a statement that's "too negative" about future prospects risks spooking people in #3 - causing further damage to the business, as well as to people in #2.