danielayele

From a comment I made a few days ago on the "Is Apple buying Facebook" article:

"a buyout is probably unlikely (given how many offers/deals Zuck has either rejected or pulled out of in the last minute over the past 6 years). That said, he may be looking to Apple as a default liquidity provider which would save Facebook from needing to go public. If existing VC firms seeking liquidity and employees looking to cash out all sold to Apple that would probably decrease their outstanding # of shareholders and keep them clear of SEC regs for at least a little while longer. Also seems like a solid long term relationship given both companies' strong focus on design, usability, and the consumer."

The move obviously makes strategic sense but I don't see why Zuck wouldn't want to just use Apple as a pre-IPO (instead of issuing new shares) and let Fbook shareholders sell existing stock to Apple. Like I said earlier, this could help delay the need for an IPO for another few years (possibly longer).

angels usually invest as individuals or via LLCs and super-angels and VCs are usually structured as partnerships so the exclusion won't apply to most active early stage investors.

a buyout is probably unlikely (given how many offers/deals Zuck has either rejected or pulled out of in the last minute over the past 6 years). That said, he may be looking to Apple as a default liquidity provider which would save Facebook from needing to go public. If existing VC firms seeking liquidity and employees looking to cash out all sold to Apple that would probably decrease their outstanding # of shareholders and keep them clear of SEC regs for at least a little while longer. Also seems like a solid long term relationship given both companies' strong focus on design, usability, and the consumer.

agreed. fat tends to get a bad rap because processed high sugar foods tend to also be high in fat (or be eaten with high fat foods...see: Mcdonald's french fries and Coca-Cola).

What's the skill set? Bringing on a co-founder for a specific skill set at an early stage is generally a bad idea because everyone will (and should) be doing everything for the first few months. If you're pre-product and pre-revenue you should be looking for partners...that is, people who have complementary skill sets and are willing to do everything possible to ensure that the company succeeds. At this stage companies should be split equally among the founders. If you're at a later stage then the percentage should be decided in a brief (emphasis on brief) negotiation process that accounts for existing product value created. In this case, a good rule of thumb is probably 1/n^2 where n=employee number.