Comment by neilv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by neilv | Hacker News Reader

> Google will instead hire Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, cofounder Douglas Chen, and some of Windsurf’s R&D employees and bring them onto the Google DeepMind team, [...] Google will not have any control over nor a stake in Windsurf, but it will take a non-exclusive license to some of Windsurf’s technology. [...] Google didn’t share how much it was paying to bring on the team. OpenAI was previously reported to be buying Windsurf for $3 billion.

Why not an acquisition?

How did Google get Windsurf and investors to agree to this maneuver that decapitated the leadership and key talent, without a big exit event for everyone?

My read of the article: "Here's x% of what OpenAI offered you, you waive legal challenges while we cherry-pick your people and license the tech in their heads, and you can keep the company, and everyone left behind can promote themselves to fill the vacancies."

If they acquire a company they might need approval due to anti-trust.

If the people instead just quit their jobs and start working at Google … nothing to see here.

And everyone who didn't get a Google employee badge agreed because "x%" was big enough?

I guess VCs can't force founders to stay (the only penalty for joining Google is loosing some/all of their Windsurf equity, but I'm sure they chose what's better for them), and employees didn't need to agree (they have no vote).

I can guess a few angles and causes for legal action. I'm wondering what the deal was to incentive people not to take that legal action.

https://medium.com/@villispeaks/the-blitzhire-acquisition-e3... explores this some more. The remaining employees need to make it look like the business is still viable

Thanks, that's a great article.

I wonder whether the left-behind small-fry employees make out comparably to how they would with an IPO or big acquisition.

Or if the deal is more like: "We'll pay you double what you could make elsewhere for the 2 years we want you to Potemkin Village, or you can walk and get paid zero; we don't care, because enough people will stay."

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