Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
A funny thing happens when you sell out
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 12/2/1998; 8:34:04 AM Topic: What would peace look like? Msg #: 691 (In response to 688) Prev/Next: 690 / 692
A funny thing happens when you sell out. All of a sudden your history includes the history of the company that acquired you. When a Netscape person talks about his or her company, no matter how strange it feels, "we" started in the mid-80s as a replacement for AppleLink, not out of a research lab in Illinois.I've been here before, selling a company that was fully assimilated by the acquiring company. That's the strange thing, history is restated, even legally and financially, and definitely strategically, and the hardest part, culturally.
A small example of what can happen: the Compaq acquisition of http://www.altavista.com/. What had been brewing as a cultural feud evaporated when Compaq took over. They paid the man a few million dollars to develop an asset that will be worth billions. That's the way Case thinks too, he gets out the checkbook, and he's the boss now.
Dave
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