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by Nate75Sanders 5744 days ago
Simply profiting does not mean that you're playing the game optimally.

While small organizations can't afford a research division, Oracle certainly can. You'd think a company in the business of storing data might want to keep the guy who created ZFS, especially given how lively the database world is right now with NoSQL implementations, etc.
1 comments
hga 5744 days ago
Based on what James Gosling has said, perhaps Oracle's general HR policies just aren't compatible with retaining people at Jeff Bonwick's level.

There could also be bureaucratic turf wars going on, i.e. the total loss of autonomy/decision making power that Gosling reported suggests that those already in Oracle are happy with how they run things and have no intention of sharing those responsibilities. One can also imagine Oracle having a culture where those acquired from a money losing company don't get much respect for that alone.

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iuyfgtrghjk 5744 days ago
This happens everytime a company is taken over by a larger one. Except for a few VPs who are part of the M&A team - everyone at the smaller company always ends up beneath the same person at the larger one.

Everyone in tech knows this - which is why everyone who can leaves before a 'merger'. And why you never hear of the innovative smaller company's work 6months after the takeover.

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hga 5744 days ago
I'm not sure that's entirely true (well, except for the reporting thing). Some companies have a reputation for acquiring smaller companies with the express purpose of keeping their staff, e.g. Cisco (at least in times past) and Google.

But, yes, most of the time this is an important part of what makes the vast majority of high tech acquisitions fail miserably.

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earl 5744 days ago
Even G often seems to perform quite poorly. Viz Dodgeball / 4square. Thoroughly alienating Dennis Crowley seems like an enormous mistake. Or Paul Buchheit. Or the Delicious guy who worked at G but didn't find it a welcoming environment. If they were serious about social, they'd do whatever it takes to keep people like Joshua who've built successful social products.

I'm coming around to Zuckerberg's opinion that social is something a company is built around, not something you staple on or buy after the fact.

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rbanffy 5744 days ago
> Or the Delicious guy who worked at G

This comes across very weird...

I know... Wrong website for jokes like these. Couldn't help.

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iuyfgtrghjk 5744 days ago
There's a Joel Spolsky podcast about Qt (pronounced cute) where he talks about the cute guy giving the talk - to the confused embarrassment of the other speakers.
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