Microsoft Buys Wunderlist

Posted by Hugh
Jun 6, 2015 at 11:23 AM

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Donovan wrote:
>>On the subject of buying to kill it. The example that bugs me to this
>>day is the Facebook purchase of drop.io (anybody remember that great
>>file drop, storage, note-taking, notes-by-phone service?).
> >Yes we do; and the way it was discontinued:
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/2111
> >
>>Facebook
>>couldn’t hire Zuckerberg buddy Sam Lessin for some weird reason, so
>>Zuckerberg bought the company (drop.io), brought Sam aboard as a
>>Facebook VP, and shut-down the service. He only wanted Sam. Lessin
>>stayed about four years and left - with a bundle of money from the
>>drop.io sale. I miss it to this day.
> >I didn’t know this background. Makes the disregard to users even more
>prominent.

It’s a not uncommon cycle in the “creative” industries - a big company wants to hire one or more “creative” individual(s) working in a recently-founded small firm, the deal can’t be done (usually because the “creative” individuals refuse), the big company then buys the entire small firm, places the “creative” individual(s) on earn-out(s), the usefulness (to the big company) of the original team dwindles over time so it shrinks, the earn-out(s) end(s), and the “creative” individual(s) depart, wiser but richer. (And, if they’re lucky and their non-competes are not too restrictive, are able to repeat the whole process with a new start-up, a new purchaser and a new deal. Perhaps more than once.)