[jacquesm]

I wished people would use the word 'acquires' to describe those situations where a succesful start-up is bought by a larger company, not as a fig-leaf for dismembering a not-so-hot start-up or worse.

[rwhitman]

I feel like companies throw this around as a feelgood term to try and boost the esteem of the team after a liquidation.

For the founders it boosts their profile with one last feature on Techcrunch & in their resumes for the next job by touting "acquired by X" when in fact it was liquidated to X as a fire sale.