Competition for talent in the Bay Area tech sector is intense, and in the last few years the phenomenon of the acqui-hire has had a dramatic impact in the business community.
Some of the major corporate players — Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo!, to name a few — are actively using the acqui-hire as a way of getting key engineers and managers to join their employee ranks.
For entrepreneurs in early-stage companies, it’s important to understand the dynamics and corporate motivations involved in an acqui-hire, as well as the mainstream elements that are typically part of an acqui-hire transaction.
What is the typical structure of an early stage company that lends itself to an acqui-hire transaction? What do the investors in an early stage company get out of an acqui-hire, if anything? Do employees involved in acqui-hires benefit more than by simply accepting an offer of employment?
In this Wharton Entrepreneurs Workshop, Todd Carpenter and Rachel Proffitt, partners at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati address these questions and more drawing from their experience in practices focused on venture-backed companies and the investors that support them, including acqui-hires on both the selling and the buying side.
Watch the workshop in its entirety below:
Posted: July 1, 2015
