Hacker News Reader

Acquihires are interesting in that they might seem expensive, but might actually be cheap from the standpoint of mitigating the risk of an unknown and unproven team.

This case might be a little different given the short time this team existed though.

> Acquihires are interesting in that they might seem expensive, but might actually be cheap from the standpoint of mitigating the risk of an unknown and unproven team.

Considering that, IMO, Valley companies severely overestimate that risk I think acquihires are a really expensive way to acquire people.

but didn't Otto employees end up making a ton of money, way more than what they would have at Uber? given that otto was pretty young?

Exactly; given Uber's history of squeezing their drivers, minimizing their take home pay in an attempt to get the lowest ride rates in the market, I wouldn't be too quick to sign up either..