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Comment by tomasien | Hacker News Reader

Initially didn't know what to make of this given how highly I think of Carsabi and how new Ark was. Put the pieces together with the FB aqui-hire http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/facebook-acqhires-founders-...

and now I think it's probably beneficial for all parties, but not as big of a deal as a full acquisition (by a mile).

Love to see Ark pursuing other verticals though!

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Slightly OT, but could someone tell me what, exactly, "acq-hire" means? I thought it referred to one company acquiring another purely in order to get access to talent.

Facebook did not acquire any Carsabi assets according to the linked TC story, it simply offered the founders jobs.

Back in the day, we called that getting "hired."

Is there a distinction here (e.g. perhaps some sort of payback to investors or something) that I'm missing?

Your understanding of "acq-hire" is accurate. In this case, I think the TC headline is wrong.

If Carsabi never raised money (I'm not sure), then they had no investors to return money to. And since FB didn't want it, perhaps it was okay to just sell it separately.

Typically 'acquihire' means the company was purchased solely for the talent. If the company had investors, it means they'll get some of their money back. If it didn't, it might be done anyway to let the founders take their windfall as capital gains instead of ordinary income.

If they were just offered jobs, then it's not an acquihire. It's just a dead startup and some jobs.

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