ReMail (YC W09) Acquired by Google | Hacker News Reader

ReMail (YC W09) Acquired by Google

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151 pointsSam_Odio51 comments

I'm not sure shutting down a product and hiring the founder(s) should be classed as an 'acquisition'.

It's just a recruitment with a golden hello really.

These seem to be getting more and more common lately.

I'm curious. 'a recruitment with a golden hello really' means that they had an offer of acquisition but with a 'you have to work for us' clause?

I believe axod's point is that an acquisition on this scale may simply amount to a signing bonus, rather than what investors might consider a substantial exit.

Since he is shutting down the original project, and terms are not disclosed, it's entirely possible that he simply became tired of running it, applied for Google, interviewed and was hired.

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree, but you had asked for clarification.

Do you think Google would fake an acquisition though? It's hard to imagine for a company of that stature and those means.

Just to let the guy save face? If his stature as a developer warranted it, then it might be to both parties advantage. Signing bonus is not press worthy, acquisition is.

Six Apart 'acquired' Pownce [1]. Shut it down, then a year later and the 2 founders have left [2].

I'm always slightly skeptical ;) but these things just seem like a way to avoid having your baby in the dead pool to me.

[1] http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2008/12/welcome-pownce-team.htm... [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02...

The fact they both left shortly after a year would perhaps point to something a bit more substantial than a signing bonus. More like a retention bonus tied to the acquisition. That's what I thought when I read about LC's departure the other day anyway.

What do you mean "faked"? They're acquiring the company. That doesn't obligate them to continue the existing product, nor mean that that's why they found the company valuable. Even if they discontinue the existing product, the people who have a deep understanding of that space are valuable, and the ideas/concepts behind the product are valuable.

Oftentimes 'talent acquisitions' are paid for with company stock that vests over several years, so yes, there's a 'you have to work for us' clause. It's still a good deal for the acquired company, but not quite as good as it seems.

When there's intellectual property involved, it's still acquisition. I would imagine some sort of consideration was offered in exchange for the IP associated with reMail, which makes it an acquisition instead of recruitment.

I think axod was using it as a euphemism -- effectively a lot of smaller talent acquisitions are hiring + vested bonus. That said, it seems a reasonable coup de grace if you've feel like you're ready to wind down a company and want to make the best of it.

Sometimes even if the product isn't itself of worth to the acquiring company, there may be value in removing that product from the potential acquisition market for competitors.

Google rewrites a lot of the stuff they buy, so if shutting down the current version of something makes it not an acquisition, you'd practically have to stop using the word "acquisition" to describe Google acquisitions.

Fair point, I don't know what technology, code or IP was actually included. Did they solve anything the GMail team couldn't solve? reMail is billed as 'email search'. Surely Google are pretty good at email search already?

Without any details released of the deal no one can really tell if it's an acquisition or an "acquisition".

There's a difference between shutting down the product (pownce, etherpad, etc), and just rewriting (reddit, blogger?, youtube? etc) and keeping the product going.

The constraints of search on a mobile device are considerable in comparison to that of the web. Gabor was brilliant in his execution on mobile optimization.

you mean [non connected] search on a mobile device? I can certainly see that, but I'm not sure how big a market there is for it.

Congratulations are definitely in order, but seeing as they're discontinuing their product, I can't help but be reminded of: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1117668 :-)

Congrats to the team but...

How can you say: "[Thanks to] Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh [who] endured my slide deck on our multi-step plan for global email domination, and pointed out that instead I should build something small, simple, and useful. It worked."

It worked so well that you kill the product? Or does "it worked" refer to the pay day + google job?

I assume the plan is to integrate his product into mobile Gmail. His product will die, but all of those ideas will live on.

There's no mention of any future for the ideas, even vague NDA-friendly ones. That's the issue.

Why would Google make this acquisition if there was no value in the product, if they intended to do nothing similar, if they could make no use of the work done to date, of the outcome of the experiment, of the experience of the team?

They wouldn't. Google just acquired the leading experts at monetizing search on the iPhone. Can't you see the value in that for Google from many angles?

Everything Google does has to fit Google's scale - and that is at odds with architecting a product at a startup. So you rewrite it, you get the new DNA incorporated into existing product lines, and you move forward.

reMail does work. Jessica uses it all the time.

Awesome. Congrats Gabor & company.

Seems like Google is acquiring an awful lot of ex-employees lately, with Etherpad, Aardvark, and now ReMail. Makes sense given their hiring push and large cash supply, but it makes me wonder if the best way to fame and fortune is to do well at Google and then to leave Google...

Well, he was just an intern. There's a big difference between interning, presumably returning to school, then starting a startup sometime later and getting acquired than quitting to start a startup and then getting acquired.

It's my understanding that he was full-time at Google before joining Xobni; the "as an engineering intern in 2004" refers to the start of his career there, and he came back as a fulltimer afterwards.

do well at Google and then to leave Google

You forgot the whole middle part where you have to burn the midnight oil working on your startup, raising $, seeing uncertainty written all over your adventure. Yes, even if you are an ex-Googler.

The type of engineers who "do well at Google" tend to do that anyway. The risk is a bit less, but the workload is just as high, and (depending upon your project) the uncertainty can be too.

Don't forget friendfeed.

http://friendfeed.com/about/team

FriendFeed got acquired by the competition, which is probably far worse from Google's perspective.

If you're just counting startups founded by Xooglers, you'd have to include Twitter and Cuil as well.

True enough.

It's just that being an ex-core-googler seems to definitely give people a leg up in the start-up scene.

I see the re-mail acquisition as google re-hiring an old employee if the amount isn't mentioned it can't be much, and given the project is killed it would surprise me if it were.

Is Google trying hire back every engineer or intern who left it?

Yes. People go off, try new things, then get acquired and brought back into the mothership to incorporate their experiment. Its a very valid model of R&D.

Worked out for Steve Jobs as well

Agreed, but he's an outlier.

In terms of the Apple acquisition of NeXT, Steve Jobs is not an outlier.

Founders leaving big companies, often in groups, to found starups that are later acquired by big companies - often one they previously worked for, is common.

Its the most common pattern among successful startups. Its happened since day one of silicon valley, 110 years ago. This pattern is the basis of most of the wealth in the area.

"Google and reMail have decided to discontinue reMail's iPhone application, and we have removed it from the App Store. reMail is an application on your phone. If you already have reMail, it will continue to work. We'll even provide support for you until the end of March"

Good for them, congrats, but oy-vey!

Personally, I wouldn't move to work for a big company like Google after running a successful startup like this unless I had to as part of the deal. Not because Google is evil, but because you lose your independence. I wonder if that was part of the deal.

Isn't that part of getting acquired? You typically don't get acquired by other startups (they don't have money), and you typically get far less of a payout if you don't work for the acquirer afterwards (they want the talent that built the software in addition to the software itself).

* forehead-slap *

Of course, ignore my dumb comment :)

Everytime I hear about a startup being acquired by Google I think of http://suicidefood.blogspot.com/. As the ultimate goal of the startup seems to be, being devoured.

Congrats!

How much?

Will Google's "acquisition" strategy give current Google employees a greater incentive to leave the company and start their own? For example, some top engineers might have an idea for a product and will be incentivized to leave, knowing that Google will buy them as a talent acquisition.

> I will be joining Google in Mountain View as a Product Manager on the Gmail team.

> Gmail is where my obsession with email started as an engineering intern back in 2004...

That must feel great.

I guess it would feel even better to sell your startup after having been rejected by Google...

Congrats!

This is not an acquisition. It's the death of a product. And I called this one also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=907456

My prediction accuracy on startup failure is pretty good, I think!

I can predict startup failure with 99% accuracy, too! :)

Maxklein, your comments consistently give me the impression that you live to belittle the achievements of others. Is that really the impression you intend to convey? You seem like a smart guy, but this stuff is painfully unpleasant to read. (You're not the only one, by any means. And yes, I would raise this concern in person.)

As for Remail/Google: what firsthand knowledge about this transaction do you have?

Also, I don't understand why he emails companies asking for discounts on web apps when he's bringing in 20k/month in revenue.

To both questions: I am the Ebenezer Scrooge of hacker news.

Great,thanks for killing a great iPhone app!

Congratulations, man.

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