STS: Acquisitions

I dropped by Seattle Tech Startups this evening. It was pretty awesome. The presentation was about acquisitions and there were about 6 people who formed a round table panel and talked about their experiences with both being acquired and buying companies and some of the issues surrounding the acquisitions. Some of the takeaways:

• Getting acquired is a bit like dating as a woman. You have to look pretty and available. Pretty means market traction. Availability can only really be communicated through soft networking, although partnering with "target" companies is a good way as well.
• Employee and customer retention are the big issues for the acquiring company
• The technology doesn't matter. For most scenarios, re-implementing the entire thing on the acquirer's technology stack is not that big of a deal.
• When doing deals, it pays to be nice. People who don't play well with others get cut, or don't get purchased at all.
• The actual acquisition process will grind the company to a halt over the short term. The legal minutia is overwhelming.
• Do as little informally, with friends, as possible. Weird, unknown liabilities the company has are major outstanding issues during the acquisition process. Also, they tend to come and bite people in the butt.
• Start vesting as soon as possible.
• When gathering people around an enemy, try not to have that enemy be someone you might acquire or be acquired by. It's not the end of the world, but it might unnecessarily narrow your vision.