Hacker News Reader

Comment by speeder | Hacker News Reader

I do not understood the tale :(

Why it was genius?

Those employees were given options at Apple ($80M worth) that were probably lost once they left the company to work at Color. Then Apple ended up getting them back on the cheap. So instead of $160M, Apple ended up paying $80M + $7M.

I guess it's a matter of perspective.

One could also say that it was an employee retention disaster. Apple could not keep their key engineers happy even after offering millions to stay.

After realizing the full extent of the engineers' value after the fact, Apple had to buy a company that had no viable product just to get the engineers back.

Doesn't the notion of this being genius imply that Apple "let them get away" the first time because they knew they'd be able to acquire their next company for less? Or am I missing something?

Its a very sycophantic article that gives Apple far too much credit. No "genius" strategy was involved it was just fortunate (for Apple) that they could acquire the remnants of Color for such a low price.

I don't understand.

They bought Lala. The sought-after employees left even after being offered a $80M golden leash.

They were bought again with Color. What stops these employees from leaving again, with a much less lucrative golden leash this time around?

Nothing stops them from leaving again. My previous comment was just taking issue with the article describing the move as "genius"

Seems to be a common trend with pro-Apple articles. Earlier I read one that credited Metro-style design to Retina displays.

agreed. I don't believe those who left were unhappy, rather they thought that they had more upside by going to Color. Obviously, it didn't pan out. "Genius?" No, just luck for Apple, less so for the employees.

Also remember the Stock has gone more than tripled. SO $80 in cash and $80 in stock that would be really worth about 200M today. Now they bought the same team again with 7M of todays priced.

The other way to look at it was that Apple saved $73M+ ($160M-87M) at the cost of losing 20+ good employees for a few years.

What remains to be seen though is if what any of those employees produce for Apple is worth anything near either price.

What did Apple even end up paying for though?

The engineers behind the technological marvel that was Color?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com