[birken]

Do you think the behavior of these companies could possibly be explained by doing what they think is in their own selfish best interest instead of somehow using "elitist social circles" to "absolve losses"? And who is absolving the losses anyways? Wouldn't some of the people in the "elitist social circles" be investors in AL but not PH and be upset that these "losses" were being inflicted upon them? Why wouldn't they use their elite social clout to stop it?

Anecdote time: I've personally seen a few startups that were failing attempt to sell themselves to the startup I was somewhat senior in. I interviewed and chatted with founders of the startups that were trying to get acquired. My meetings were not interfered with by the VCs or the angels or anybody else. They are far far too busy to care about every minute detail of what goes on at their portfolio companies. Had we ever gone through with one of the acquisitions (which we never did when I was there), my guess is the board would have tried very hard to convince us not to do it, as an acquisition has a much higher chance of going wrong than going well and can be a huge distraction.