Perhaps I should use this approach the next time I apply for a job. "You're going to have to acquire my side project in order to get me to start working here."
Maybe I could make techcrunch.
Mean-spirited comments are rarely completely false. They're mostly nasty ways to use (usually partial) truths.
But, like you said, they probably wouldn't have gotten the signing bonus.
When you're funding dozens of startups a year, this kind of thing is going to happen once in a while. It's an expected outcome. I'm glad the founders had an exit that makes them happy.
One concrete consequence is that Y Combinator funding lets you sell early, if you want to. It can sometimes make sense to sell yourself when you're small for a few million, rather than take more funding and roll the dice again. Google likes to do early-stage acquisitions, and we expect them to become increasingly common as other companies learn what Google has.
If you take a large amount of money from an investor, you usually give up this option. But we realize (having been there) that an early offer from an acquirer can be very tempting for a group of young hackers. So if you want to sell early, that's ok. We'd make more if you went for an IPO, but we're not going to force anyone to do anything they don't want to.
If they sold hackermeter for "a few million" I'm giving up on capitalism. It was good while it lasted.
Snark aside, I assume they didn't get a few million because they didn't disclose the amount. It would have to be an amount that neither side wanted to brag about.
Don't assume that just because you don't know about something, it's inconsequential.